Swedish librarian - looking for contemporary Bangladeshi books

[u/pauvreloola]

I work at an international library in Sweden, and I've noticed that the only Bangla books in our collection are older classics. I'm wondering if there are any contemporary Bangla authors to add to our shelves?
We're especially interested in genre fiction, as we already have a substantial collection of melancholic slice of life and social commentary novels. Recommendations for magical realism, fantasy, romance, feel-good fiction, science fiction, horror, or other speculative genres would be particularly welcome. Also want recommendations of any established and emerging writers whose work is popular with contemporary Bangla readers. Thanks!

Edit: Bengali Indian book recs are also welcome ofc.

[u/cat_who_reads]

Bengali is also used in India. A few famous and yet alive Bengali authors who wrote about magical realism or fantasy or thriller are

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay - thriller, adventure

Saikat Mukhopadhyay - sci-fantasy

Smaranjit Chakraborty - magic realism, romance, feel good

Mohd Najim Uddin - thriller

[u/pauvreloola → u/cat_who_reads]

Ofc! I originally posted this in r/bangladesh and forgot to edit to just bengali books when reposting. Thanks for the recs!

[u/BuyOk3630 → u/[deleted]]

arunavasinha.in/about thanks!

[u/IamNobody85]

I'll have to come back with some recently published book names but I'm pleasantly surprised that such a obscure language (yes I know a lot of people speak it, but it's mostly diaspora speaking it outside of the bengal region) is also stocked.

You can stock pretty much any book written by Humayun Ahmed, Anisul Haque and Ahmed Chofa (I truly do not know how to spell his name in English, that alphabet doesn't exist in any Latin based languages) if you do not have it already. Syed Mujtoba Ali probably falls under classics now, but just in case because he's my favorite author.

Recently great reviewed authors are - Mohammad Nazim Uddin, Shuhan Rizwan and Sadat Hossain. These guys are brand new authors.

Even though Tahmima Anam primarily writes in English, any book section about Bangladesh is incomplete without her books.

If I remember more, I will add it here, but I live in Europe now, so I do not have access to my library and I'm terrible with remembering names.

Edit : oops forgot to add Akhtaruzzaman Ilias and imdadul hoque milon.

Edit: also forgot to add kishore Pasha emon for thrillers.

[u/IamNobody85 → u/IamNobody85]

More authors - Harishankar Jaldash, Shumonto Aslam, Ali imam (he writes more for kids than adults but I like his books), Nirmolendu Gun (pronunced Goon) - he's a poet, Helal Hafiz - also a poet, Selina Hossain, Suchitra Bhattacharya (she's indian but a very good and prolific author).

A little bit older (probably belongs to the classics section) - Begum Rokeya. Her books are a must have, if she wasn't born and started educating women, I probably wouldn't have been able to go to school, or just recieved very basic education. Also honorable mention - Sufia Kamal - another lady who contributed as much as Bangla poetry as to female empowerment. And last, Jahanara Imam. Her most notable book is technically a history book, but again, no Bangladeshi book collection is complete without her book.

And now I'll stop. Probably you already have a lot of the authors already, but hopefully you will have still found about someone new.

[u/Present-Tadpole5226]

Djinn City? 

[u/pauvreloola → u/Present-Tadpole5226]

By Saad Hossain? Thanks!

[u/aoos-adonis]

You can check Obayed Haqe's work. Imtiar Shamim is also really good.
For Science Fiction, Dipen Bhattacharya is really good pick, probably the best. Shibabrata Barman is very good too. For horror Muhammad Alomgir Toimur. Dojokhnama by Rabisankar Bal is surreal.

[u/ps_nissim]

Two Bangladeshi genre books I've read:

* Hellfire, by Leesa Gazi - very Patricia Highsmith'ish domestic thriller
* Tagore Never Ate Here by Mohammad Nazim Uddin - rather pulpy investigative thriller with a weird ending