The world's first and longest magical fantasy HOSHRUBA was compiled in the Urdu language by two of its greatest prose writers. Spread over eight thousand pages, it reached the summits of popularity and acclaim never attained by any other epic in the history of Urdu literature. But the richness of its language and its length deterred translations for more than 125 years. In this first translation of this iconic fantasy by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, whose translation of THE ADVENTURES OF AMIR HAMZA was hailed by the international press as a gift to world literature, we enter the magical world of Hoshruba, conjured in the untold past by sorcerers defying the laws of God and the physical world. Filled with dazzling illusions and occult realms inhabited by powerful sorceresses and diabolic monsters, Hoshruba had a fixed life, and a designated conqueror who would use its magical key to unravel it one day. The first book of the HOSHRUBA series begins with the giant Laqa entering Hoshruba's protection, and its sorcerer emperor finding himself at war with Laqa's arch fiend, Amir Hamza the Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction, who pursues the giant with his numerous tricksters and a young prince - the yet to be known conqueror-designate of Hoshruba. When the prince is kidnapped by the devious trickster girls sent by the sorcerer emperor, it falls to an extraordinary trickster and a rebel sorceress to continue his mission. ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: Musharraf Ali Farooqi (www.mafarooqi.com) is an author, novelist and translator. His critically acclaimed translation of THE ADVENTURES OF AMIR HAMZA (2007) was published by the Random House Modern Library. His childrens picture book THE COBBLER'S HOLIDAY OR WHY ANTS DON'T WEAR SHOES (2008) came out from A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press. His novel THE STORY OF A WIDOW (2008) was published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada. A translation of contemporary Urdu poet Afzal Ahmed Syed's selected poetry, ROCOCO AND OTHER WORLDS (2010) is forthcoming from the Wesleyan University Press Poetry Series. Website: www.hoshruba.com

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