Set in Balochistan, where Rizia Rahman lived during the late fifties, The Burning Stones focuses on an intellectually challenged bhisti named Lalu. It is through his perspective that the reader learns about the struggle for independence in Balochistan. It is also through Lalu that the reader learns the stories of Zaro, who lost her husband to the independence struggle and is now in the process of losing her son, and of the beautiful Mahbuba, who is in love with Zaro’s son.
The novel depicts the conflicts and prejudices between the different ethnic groups. While Brohis and Pashtuns get along together, they dislike the Punjabis and the Hindustani settlers. Lalu delivers water to all the houses and shops which require his services, including the house of the Punjabi Jamil Bhatti. When the family is in danger, Lalu risks his life to protect Jamil Bhatti’s son. However, after the insurgency fails, Lalu reacts violently to something derogatory that the young man says, with fatal results.
While telling the story of a freedom struggle which was brutally suppressed, the novel seems to foreshadow the continuing conflict in the region. Though North West Frontier Province has been renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the suppression of Balochistan continues.
As the story of a freedom struggle, The Burning Stones is valuable reading for both Bangladeshis and Pakistanis as well as a wider readership outside South Asia.