Kafka in Ayodhya
Zafar Anjum
Kitaab (2018)
Literary

Featured in
Typography-based

In this collection of eight short stories by Singapore-based writer, publisher and filmmaker Zafar Anjum, the myriad strands of contemporary South Asian life are twisted and turned into memorable stories – ironic or indignant, sad or touching. In the title story, the eponymous writer travels to Ayodhya where he presents his humorous and candid views on the ongoing fight between Hindus and Muslims over a 16th Century mosque said to have been built on an ancient temple birthplace of Lord Rama.

For the cover, our cover cooks' initial drafts focused on a typographic design that would be inclusive of all of the stories featured in the book. The published cover makes an obvious allusion to one of Franz Kafka's best-known works, The Metamorphosis, with a cockroach rendered by the stories’ titles themselves; creating a literary maze of the human predicament etched in hand-drawn lettering.

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Fight, Kid!