How Does One Cook Beans? brings together Syed Waliullah’s original writings in English, his own
translations of his Bangla works, and a curated selection of his stories translated by others.
Rooted in the landscapes of rural Bengal yet exploring different classes, professions, ages, genders,
and temperaments, Waliullah’s fiction carries the quiet intensity of a man who belonged
everywhere and nowhere. His stories are shaped by the solitude of foreign postings, the memories
of riverine Bengal, and the existential unease that marked both his life and his art.
“How Does One Cook Beans,” written, like The Ugly Asian under the pseudonym “Abu
Sharya,” is Waliullah’s only piece of fiction set in Paris. The narrative possesses a delightful
playfulness that is absent in his other fiction. “I Believe My Son,” an autobiographical story,
is being published for the first time. Twelve of his short stories translated into English by other
translators include eight anthologized in Nayanchara and Dui Teer as well as four unanthologized
ones: “Shishu,” “Dreams Come Rolling Down,” “The Other Wife,” and “No, Bubu Doesn’t Cry.”
“Shishu,” published in 1939, is the earliest of these stories.
This collection invites new readers and longtime admirers to rediscover Waliullah as an author who
is intimate, unguarded, and profoundly human.