Yours, Etcetera
In 2015, Bengal Lights Books brought out a collection of my short stories that spoke to the human condition. Yours, Etcetera brought together previously published stories with new ones.
“Ikhtisad Ahmed’s debut collection of 11 short stories merges the absurd with the real, creating a world in the reader’s mind that can be both joyous and unsettling. Influences of Camus, Beckett, Kafka and Orwell are much in evidence in the overarching literary philosophy of the stories, exposing life’s many incongruities aided by sharp prose and a macabre sense of humour.” - Ahsan Akbar, author of The Devil’s Thumbprint and Director of the Dhaka Literary Festival, in the Tank Magazine, Issue 83
“Ikhtisad Ahmed provides us with a surrealist glimpse of the nightmarish reality that is society governed by racism, corruption and oppression. Using elements of absurdity, he draws the reader into a world where individuals are silenced by terror and violence, and personal fears can no longer be distinguished above the multitudes of suffering.” - Meike Ziervogel, author of Magda and Kauthar, and Founding Publisher of Peirene Press
“Crisp and thoughtful, these stories cut to the heart of our existence.” - Kunal Basu, author of Kalkatta and The Japanese Wife
“Tough, clear-sighted and deftly paced, these intriguing stories navigate the shifting geographies of our contemporary reality. A welcome new addition to the growing corpus of Bangladeshi writing in English.” - Aamer Hussein, author of Electric Shadows