Novel Udaas Naslain by Abdullah Hussain Pakistani novelist?

Answer 1

Yes, ofcourse it's by Pakistani novelist but translated by English man. The novel is full of dreamscapes. It opens with this scene: a man on horseback laying a line of honey from a jar, in the middle of a field. As he rides on a confusion of ants and bugs settle on the honey making a delineation that retainers following behind the horseman can see and mark out. Later we find out that a nawab rewarded the horseman for services rendered by letting him claim as large a tract of land as he could over the course of an afternoon.

We get the explanation later, but the opening scene is a haunting one for a novel that is about marking out boundaries, patrimonies and other futures.