And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women. Ed. with Introduction, by Muneeza Shamsie. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2008. Pp. 386. Paper $ 15.95.

• Nadia Butt

This collection of short stories is indeed a milestone in the history of Pakistani literature in English by women writers. These stories reflect not only the political, cultural, domestic and economic dimensions of pre-and post-Partition Pakistan, but more importantly traces the cultural outlook of the first and the second generation of Pakistani women writers. The informative introduction by Muneeza Shamsie contextualises these writing by giving a brief historical account of the socio-political conditions which serve as the backdrop of the stories and also demonstrate how Englishlanguage writing by Muslim women has developed on the Indian subcontinent. Shamsie seeks to make the reader understand the social framework of the stories by highlighting political transformations in Pakistan as a new nation-state. Hence the anthology is a unique text for those who aim to place Pakistani women literature in the broad historical and political context.

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