Small Scale Sinners by Mahreen Sohail

About the book:

Mahreen Sohail’s scintillating debut collection of stories examining life in Pakistan, SMALL SCALE SINNERS begins from a place of acceptance. The people we meet on the page know they are not good—look at the world, its demands. Two girls observe a group of child soldiers, and one reflects: “My sister and I were only small-scale sinners.” Then, the scale tips; goodness is relative. But against a backdrop of war or even just workaday suffering—does it matter?

Throughout these twelve kaleidoscopic stories, Sohail shifts our perspective on this question from moment to moment. Two stories take the form of a litany. “A List of Places My Mother Was Old” collects moments heavy with time. And “Sisters” is a catalog of roles one sister, Sadia, plays: Sadia as Impending Disaster; Sadia as Killer; Sadia as Teacher.

About the author:

Mahreen Sohail was born in Pakistan. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied as a Fulbright scholar; and was a Writing Fellow at A Public Space and a Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Her work has appeared in Granta, the Kenyon Review, the Pushcart Prize Anthology (XLII), and elsewhere. She lives in Washington DC.

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