{"product_id":"books-the-mapmakers-of-spitalfields-by-manzu-islam","title":"The Mapmakers of Spitalfields","description":"\u003cp\u003e'There are many who date the day he took to walking as the beginning of his madness. But others mark it as the beginning of that other walk when, patiently, and bit by bit, he began tracing the secret blueprint of a new city...'\u003cbr\u003eHe is Brothero-Man, one of the pioneer jumping-ship men, who landed in the East End and lived by bending the English language to the umpteenth degree. He, 'the invisible surveyor of the city' must complete his walk before the mascatchers in white coats intercept him and take him away. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThese stories, set in London's Banglatown and Bangladesh, bring startlingly fresh insights to the experiences of exile and settlement. Written between realism and fantasy, acerbic humour and delicate grace, they explore the lives of exiles and settlers, traders and holy men, transvestite hemp-smoking actors and the leather-jacketed, pool-playing youths who defended Brick Lane from skinhead incursion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the title story, Islam makes dazzling use of the metaphor of map-making as Brothero-Man, 'galloping the veins of your city' becomes the collective consciousness of all the settlers inscribing their realities on the parts of Britain they are claiming as their own. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eSyed Manzurul (Manzu) Islam\u003c\/b\u003e was born in 1953 in a small northeastern town in East Pakistan (later Bangladesh). He has a doctorate and was Reader in English at the University of Gloucestershire, specialising in postcolonial literature and creative writing","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53507120693521,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781900715089.jpg?v=1778121546","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/books-the-mapmakers-of-spitalfields-by-manzu-islam","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}