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Kochai, Jamil Jan

Entry updated 16 January 2023. Tagged: Author.

(1992-    ) Pakistan-born author of refugee Afghan family, in US from infancy, whose work cannot be thought of directly in sf terms, though it clearly draws upon the churned mosaic of Fantastika, especially where that cauldron of story incorporates stories linked, as in much Arabian Fantasy, to an imperative over-story [for Arabian Fantasy see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The protagonist of his first book, 99 Nights in Logar (2019), finds that he must traverse Afghanistan in a Fantastic Voyage search for a lost dog whose recovery is vital to his family.

The unifying protagonist of The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories (coll of linked stories 2022) complexly inhabits twelve stories set in the terribly scarred world of Afghanistan, five of them haunted by a figure, quite likely an Avatar of his father's brother, a virtual reality-like ghost generated through a Videogame. Visions of the turmoil of modern history flash throughout all tales included, perhaps the most interesting fabulation being "The Tale of Dully's Reversion" (Spring 2022 Zoetrope: All Story), whose first sentence explicitly echoes the first sentence of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis (1915), and which includes a searing episode featuring apes and men (see Apes as Human) attempting to take down a brutal American-backed petty dictator. [JC]

Jamil Jan Kochai

born Peshawar, Pakistan: 1992

works

collections and stories

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