Song of Our Swampland by Manzu Islam
"I have a hole for a mouth” is pronounced by Manju Islam's protagonist of his second novel. The book Song of Our Swampland is based on the war of Independence of Bangladesh. It is also a book about the unanswered questions, unfulfilled dreams that the nation faces after four decades of its independence. That may be the reason why the writer portrays his characters with such deformity. The book is divided into three segments the last of which is titled 'The Island' where the protagonist Kamal takes shelter only to find another character who is a half bodied human known as the 'legless'. Manju Islam is an expatriate living in the United Kingdom for more than three decades. This is the author's fourth book, the first being The Ethics of travels: Marcopolo to Kafka, which is more of an academic book. The second book is Mapm-akers of Spitalfields, a collection of short stories mostly about the vibrant immigrant life of the Bengalis living in England. The third b...