LAST year, Musharraf Ali Farooqi published to great acclaim his 900-page English translation, The Adventures of Amir Hamza, of that great Urdu classic Dastan-i-Amir Hamza which was regarded as a truly remarkable literary feat.

Now, in marked contrast to the rambunctious Urdu tale, Farooqi has written a witty, spare and elegant English novel titled The Story of a Widow which is set in modern Karachi and tells of a woman`s buried emotions, her thwarted dreams and her struggle for self-empowerment.

The novel revolves around the widowed Mona. The certainties of her life and the bounds of respectability which she has observed always are suddenly threatened. She finds herself inexplicably attracted to Salamat Ali, the man to whom her friend and neighbour the elderly Mrs Baig has rented the upper floor of her house.

Mona`s awareness of Salamat Ali, her constant need to interpret his every utterance and gesture, before the two of them even strike up a proper conversation, is built up with great sensitivity and skill. The elderly, well-meaning Mrs Baig encourages Mona to consider the possibility of remarriage.

Mrs Baig brings a proposal of marriage from Salamat Ali in a letter couched in terms of utmost propriety. Mona is thrown into turmoil, but before she can make a decision her aunt, Aneesa, and uncle, Safdar Mir, her two daughters, Amber and Taniya, and her sister Hina all enter the fray.

All of them have advice to offer, often motivated by self interest rather than any concern for her, Mona believes. Her aunt and uncle behave as if it would be a great scandal for her to re-marry and would reflect badly on her family.

Her uncle wants to have Salamat Ali arrested. Her aunt tells Mona that she is too old for Salamat Ali but tries to get her own daughter married to him instead.

Her sister Hina thinks that Salamat looks rather crude and does not dress properly; she tries to divert Mona`s attention by pairing her off with Imad, an architect. All this impels Mona to make a decision.

The finely observed details and the subtle, understated humour of The Story of a Widow say much about the role imposed upon women, as mothers, wives and widows, through the gradual unfolding of events which reveal Mona`s intricate family relationships particularly during her two vastly different marriages to the late Akbar Ahmad and then, Salamat Ali.

Mona begins to think back on the years she had spent as the self abnegating wife of Akbar Ahmad. She had played the role of dutiful wife and mother so well that neither of her married daughters had ever suspected how she had suffered.

Her late husband, a parsimonious, tyrannical bureaucrat, had allowed her to spend so little money, that when he died, she was amazed to discover that he had left her quite rich.

In marked contrast, Salamat Ali is quite unconventional. He has a sense of humour and fun.

Sometimes he surprises Mona with unexpected, generous gifts. He also has unreasonably propriety attitudes and resents Mona conversing with an exsuitor at a party and he becomes suspicious if she has a private conversation with her sister. Mona is mortified when an inebriated Salamat Ali disgraces himself at a gathering.

Mona`s desires and her awakening sensuality are portrayed with a quiet skill, as is the mystery surrounding Salamat Ali. He had told Mrs Baig that he was in the `paper distribution industry` and is always talking about contracts and complex business dealings.

At times, he returns home late at night quite drunk. Mona does not question any of this. When his business runs into difficulties Mona offers him a loan.

The withdrawal of such a large sum from the bank causes much consternation in her family. Amber, Taniya and Hina interfere. The narrative cleverly compresses entire worlds in its portrayal of the three women and their lives and thus the complexities of Mona`s relationship with each of them.

Mona`s daughters, particularly Taniya, have great difficulty in coping with the fact that their mother has remarried and has developed a new vi brant personality that they can hardly recognise.

But Hina sees in the transformed Mona, the sister she once knew, before her marriage to Akbar Ahmad. The combination of sibling rivalry and sibling affection between Mona and Hina is brought out very vividly; their bond as sisters acts as foil to that of the gentle Amber and the acquisitive, unhappy Taniya.

Hina insists that Mona should confront some home truths about herself and Salamat Ali. Mona refuses to be manipulated or pushed into hasty decisions. Instead she decides to take matter in her own hands and determine the course of her future and her marriage.

In this graceful novel Musharraf Farooqi reveals himself to be as skilled a writer of English fiction, as he is a translator of Urdu prose.