What Remains After a Fire

A desperate wife, haunted by the ghost of her sister, is pushed to the brink of madness by her marriage to a man she does not love. A lonely woman becomes obsessed with a cloth worry doll as she tries to make sense of her existence. A young girl sifts through memories of her childhood with a maid who refused to be tamed. A father, who teaches his young son to shoot feral dogs, sets into motion devastating decisions that wreak havoc on his daughter and wife.

What Remains After a Fire offers an unflinching, searing portrait of mothers and sisters, wives and daughters who are singed by life. Some emerge, phoenix-like, from the ashes; many learn quiet endurance; a few lurch towards complete erasure.

Provocative, wise and tender, Kanza Javed’s short story collection tells of women-united by their search for love and acceptance-in a world governed by men.