Fault Lines is the first anthology containing stories from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, the United States and the United Kingdom on the theme of 1971. There is a lot of creative writing that has emerged from 1971, but most of it in regional languages. This anthology, by putting together stories originally written in Bangla, Urdu, Sindhi or Punjabi, in addition to a handful originally written in English, attempts to bridge the language barrier. The breakup of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh were attended by violence and bloodshed. As these writers try to come to grips with the facts and the emotions of 1971, the reader is taken back to that turbulent and momentous time. The stories are painful and often brutal, even as they recount tales of quite heroism.