<DIV><p>In India’s colonial past, in a time of political and social revolution, <b>Ismat Chughtai</b> masterfully unfolds her <i>magna opus</i>, <i>The Crooked Line</i>: the semi-autobiographical tale of a fiery-spirited, middle-class Muslim girl bent on exploring the shape and nature of consuming desire. Writing with the same honesty and passion as her scandalous short-story, “The Quilt,” Chughtai exposes the complex relationships developed between women living and working in relative seclusion, and the intellectual and emotional contradictions lying in the heart of a rebellious country on the brink of independence from the British Raj and ultimately Partition.</p></DIV>