Akhteruzzaman Elias is widely regarded as one of Bangladesh’s greatest fiction writers, despite having written only two novels and twenty-two short stories before his untimely death in 1997. He received numerous awards for his work, including the prestigious Bangla Academy Shahitya Puroshkar (1983), the Kazi Mahbub Ullah award (1996) and the second highest civilian award in Bangladesh, the Ekushey Padak (posthumously, 1999).