Who tells the greatest story god or manto dozakhnama: conversations in hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of manto and ghalib and a history of indian culture rolled into one. Exhumed from dust, manto's unpublished novel surfaces in lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake in this dastan, manto and ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, i discovered rabisankar bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country. Rabisankar bal's audacious novel, told by reflections in a mirror and forged in the fires of hell, is both an oral tale and a shield against oblivion. An echo of distant screams. Inscribed by the devil's quill, dozakhnama is an outstanding performance of subterranean memory.
