A Life in Words, the first complete translation of her celebrated memoir Kaghazi hai Pairahan, provides an authentic and delightful account of several crucial years of Ismat s life. Presented along with the vivid and high-energy descriptions of her childhood years are the conflicted experiences of growing up in a large Muslim family during the early decades of the twentieth century. We get an intimate view of a writer s fierce struggle to find her own voice and depict with passion and precision the visible and subtle tyrannies of contemporary society. A Life in Words is a searingly honest and compellingly readable memoir of the life of one of the most significant Urdu writers of all time.