Barbed Wire Fence: Stories of Displacement from the Barak Valley of Assam

Barbed Wire Fence: Stories of Displacement from the Barak Valley of Assam is a collection of seventeen short stories that express the myriad facets of the immigrant experience of people from present-day Bangladesh who were forced to leave their native land during and after India’s independence and settle, amongst other places, in the Barak valley of Assam. Some stories explore the anguished sorrow of alienation while others speak of the turmoil of fractured identities. The stories lend a voice to those Bengalis for whom the painful memory of their beloved homeland is further exacerbated by the fact they are unwanted in Assam. They try to capture the terrifying essence of the brutal struggle for survival; the elemental fight against extreme depravation, social exploitation and political oppression. Barbed Wire Fence is a tract of unapologetic social realism which engages the reader’s sympathy and perhaps more importantly creates awareness of the plight and sufferings of these people.