ABSTRACT The present article critically appreciates the novel Khwabnama by the famous Bengali writer Akhteruzzaman Elias. I have carried out a reading emphasizing the artistic possibilities the novel can provide in re-viewing history. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the novel, I have shown that Khwabnama provides a picture of collective human existence in tandem with a particular moment in political history through its primary focus on subaltern lives, often omitted or “misrepresented” in mainstream history. In this respect, it is consistent with some of the main assumptions of Subaltern Studies. However, the novel is more interested in discovering the form of actual living than in formulating a fixed structure for the history of the underprivileged. To this end, the book skillfully uses some of the techniques of fiction—such as magical realism—in its style. The essay shows that the novel hints at some structural propositions about history and human existence, which can only happen through the mediation of literary aesthetics.