Academic, writer, and translator Dr Fakrul Alam's new book, Once More into the Past: Essays, Personal, Public, and Literary, was published at the Ekushey Boi Mela 2020, recently.
Published by The Daily Star Books, the volume is a curated essay collection written by Dr Alam on various occasions for The Daily Star, back from 1999, when he started writing for the newspaper as a contributor. He further went on to serve as a Consulting Editor for the Star Literature page and Daily Star Books from July 2017 to February 2018. "Most of the essays and reviews from The Daily Star I have assembled in this book have thus been triggered by my remembrances of things in the past," he says.
The personal section includes musings on Dr Alam's Nana Bari, his introduction to Rabindra Sangeet at a young age, his memories of the Liberation War and teaching at DU through moments of peace and political upheaval, and much more. "Just read my essays, Ah Nana Bari! and Growing Up with Rabindra Sangeet, reprinted in this book, and you will understand not only how E B White inspired me but also the extent of his influence on me, and why I have titled my book thus," he adds.
In the public section, Dr Alam comments on the early days of the British Council in Bangladesh, the history of Dhaka through Partition, the Language Movement and Liberation, Karl Marx's writings on India, and the life and legacy of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The Literary section explores Dr Alam's personal favourites—Edward Said, Jibanananda Das, Razia Khan Amin, Kaiser Haq, and Syed Manzoorul Islam, along with other literary giants—Tagore, Melville, R K Narayan, Gunter Grass, and many others. "All I hope now is that readers of this book will find them enjoyable and confirm my belief that reprinting them were worth these trips down my memory's lanes," he smiles.
Fakrul Alam is UGC Professor of English at the University of Dhaka renowned for his work on postcolonial literature and Rabindranath Tagore. He has also taught at universities in North America and India.
His noteworthy works include Daniel Defoe: Colonial Propagandist (1989), Bharati Mukherjee, (Twayne USA, 1995), Jibanananda Das: Selected Poems (University Press Limited, 1999), South Asian Writers in English (Thomson Gale, 2006), Imperial Entanglements and Literature in English (Writers. ink, 2007), The Essential Tagore (with Radha Chakravarti; Harvard UP and Viswa Bharati, 2011), and Rabindranath Tagore and National Identity Formation in Bangladesh: Essays and Reviews (Bangla Academy, 2013).
He has also translated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Unfinished Memoirs (UPL Bangladesh, Penguin Books India, OUP Pakistan, 2012) and Prison Diaries (Bangla Academy, 2016), along with Mir Mosharraf Hossain's 1885 epic Bishad-Sindhu, published as Ocean of Sorrow by the Bangla Academy in 2016. Professor Alam was awarded the SAARC Literary Award in 2012 and the Bangla Academy Literary Award for translation in 2013.
Once More into the Past: Essays, Personal, Public, and Literary, with its cover designed byKazi Akib Bin Asad and a foreword by Mahfuz Anam, Edior & Publisher, The Daily Star, is available at The Daily Star Books stall (491-492) for BDT 390 (under 25 percent discount), at the Ekushey Boi Mela 2020.
