fiction

Box office nation

When Mr. Vik Roman looked at the time with flinching eyes, it was around 3:30 am.
4 July 2025, 18:51 PM

Dhaka in slow motion

The city still wants to breathe.
27 June 2025, 18:42 PM

Maybe a mirage

Something you may... You may never find again.
26 June 2025, 10:25 AM

How to: live

My love always arrived wrapped in silence, wrapped in dust. But that was childhood.
26 June 2025, 10:19 AM

Heart, cling to me

We will make meaning out of the holes in the sun
26 June 2025, 10:13 AM

In defense of disorder

At a gathering in the unfinished community hall, Saleha raises a question: "They gave us walls. But what do we want to grow inside them?"
20 June 2025, 19:09 PM

When the moon dances with elephants

In Lakshmi’s Secret Diary, Ari Gautier crafts a dazzling, multi-layered narrative that is as whimsical as it is profound.
19 June 2025, 18:00 PM

Metalheart

I know my engine is dying. I know that, by the time the next Eid rolls around, the busy little humans will have taken me apart to create something new.
8 June 2025, 09:00 AM

A sacrifice

When he was handing over the money to Naimuddin, their father, Kalam silently cried, holding Dholi’s neck in the yard.
7 June 2025, 08:45 AM

Embracing the bizarre and ‘An Eye and a Leg’

The Asia regional winner of the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Faria Basher, in an interview with The Daily Star, opens up about her journey from lifelong reader to emerging writer.
4 June 2025, 18:00 PM

Once, spring stayed longer

He brought the jasmine to his nose, inhaled its narcotic sweetness, and wondered if maybe, just maybe, it was true.
29 May 2025, 12:57 PM

Vivisection of a cat

When Ullash decided to choose the cat for one of his experiments, our borobhabi, Ullash's mother, didn't raise a single objection
23 May 2025, 18:36 PM

Betwixt and between: Tales from a Nepali-Indian girlhood

Ravindra's prose is brisk, smooth, and detailed, with numerous stories from traditional Nepali and Hindu folklore chipped in, adding layers as the story unfolds.
21 May 2025, 18:00 PM

It doesn’t rain in Shukhno Gram

In dry, forgotten Shukhno Gram, a station master’s dull routine shifts when a runaway bride in blue arrives. Their unexpected bond, painted with longing, art, and fleeting rain, transforms solitude into a moment of magic.
18 May 2025, 08:42 AM

The importance of being imperfect

Now, an automated metro-rail glides silently through the city. Conversations have become clipped, calculated. Efficiency replaces spontaneity. They call it peace. Rahim calls it absence.
16 May 2025, 18:18 PM

The thief

Farid Shaheb earned a fair bit at the office today. These days, because of the Anti Corruption Commission and newspaper journalists’ incessant pestering, he can no longer directly take the money offered to him.
25 April 2025, 18:00 PM

When they look away

“Do you think they think about us?” Asgar muttered.
25 April 2025, 11:00 AM

Hair

I love the texture of your hair and I wanted to tell you about it in far too many words than either you or I are comfortable with.
6 April 2025, 09:52 AM

A tapestry of traditions, joy, and growth

Beyond the celebration of Eid, this book also explores themes of love, loss, and the grief of spending a special occasion without a loved one.
30 March 2025, 13:45 PM

Tangerines and marmalades

I stared at the row of pre-peeled and packaged tangerines sealed tightly under plastic wrap.
28 February 2025, 15:00 PM