What happens when one attempts to exchange the life one is given for something better? Can we transform the possibilities we are born into?
A State of Freedom prises open the central, defining events of our century-displacement and migration-but not as you imagine them. Five characters, in very different circumstances from a domestic cook in Mumbai to a vagrant and his dancing bear, and a girl who escapes terror in her home village for a new life in the city-find out the meanings of dislocation, and the desire for more.
Moving between the reality of this world and the shadow of another, this novel of multiple narratives-formally daring, fierce but full of pity-delivers a devastating and haunting exploration of the unquenchable human urge to strive for a different life.
The Maliks live a life of relative freedom in 1970s’ Karachi: four beautiful sisters, Maria, Ayesha, Leila and Bina, are warily watched over by an unconventional mother. Captain Malik is usually away, and so the women forge the rules of their own universe, taking in a few men: Amir, the professor who falls in love with Maria, and Jamal or Jimmy, the neighbour who tells this tale. The curious young man is drawn in by all four sisters, particularly rebellious Ayesha. But slowly, it becomes clear he will never completely penetrate their circle-just as they will never completely move with the tide that swirls so potently around them.
In the quietly seething world of This Wide Night, Virgin Suicides meets Little Women in Pakistan. Moving from Karachi to London and finally to the rain-drenched island of Manora, here is a compelling new novel from the subcontinent-and a powerful debut to watch.
When shots ring out on Grand Trunk Road, Nargis’s life begins to crumble around her. Her husband, Massud-a fellow architect-is caught in the crossfire and dies before she can confess to him her greatest secret. Under threat from a powerful military intelligence officer who demands that she pardon her husband’s American killer, Nargis fears that the truth about her past will soon be exposed. For weeks someone has been broadcasting people’s secrets from the minarets of the city’s mosques and, in a country where the accusation of blasphemy is a currency to be bartered, the mysterious broadcasts have struck fear in Christians and Muslims alike.
Against this background of violence and fear, two outsiders-the young Christian woman Helen and the mysterious Imran from Kashmir-try to find an island of calm in which their love can grow.
In his characteristically luminous prose, Nadeem Aslam reflects Pakistan’s past and present in a single mirror-a story of corruption, resilience, and the hope that only love and the human spirit can offer.
A young woman in an arranged marriage awakens one day surprised to find herself in love with her husband. A retired divorcé tries to become the perfect partner by reading women’s magazines. A man’s longstanding contempt for his cousin suddenly shifts inward when he witnesses his cousin caring for a sick woman. The protagonists in this tender and darkly comic collection deceive themselves and engage in odd behaviours as they navigate how to be good, how to make meaningful relationships, and the strengths and pitfalls of self-interest. From a dazzlingly original, critically acclaimed writer, these stories, elegantly written and emotionally immediate, provide an intimate, honest assessment of human relationships between mothers and sons, sons and lovers, husband and wives.
An elderly bureaucrat escapes the world to run a guest house on the banks of India’s holiest river, the Narmada, only to find he has made the wrong choice. Too many lives converge here. Among those who disturb his tranquility are a privileged young executive bewitched by a mysterious lover; a novice Jain monk who has abandoned opulence for poverty; a heartbroken woman with a golden voice; an ascetic and the child he has saved from
prostitution. Through their stories A River Sutra explores the fragile longings of the human heart and the sacred power of the river.
Bewafa tells four short stories, each discussing a different shade of infidelity in today’s times when societal norms are still the same–archaic. However, the urge to explore and experiment amongst the youth is at an all-time high. This friction, if not handled well, could lead to unexpected roads. Each story, though high on emotions, unfolds in a thrilling narrative.
‘A breezy novel with snappy dialogue and mercurial twists of plot’ —Bapsi Sidhwa
All Mrinalini Singh wants, she has. A loving husband, a competent cook, the vague hope of a book deal one day. But when her old roommate Jahanara accuses her of being selfish, Mrinalini is forced to practise altruism on the nearest available target: her maid’s toddler. All this caring doesn’t come easy, though; and it hardly helps that her husband Siddhartha has quit his lucrative job and acquired parental ambitions. Or that Brajeshwar Jha, her upstairs tenant and literary rival, has not only published his book before Mrinalini, but also lampooned her and Siddhartha in it.
Close to Home is a wry look at the small compromises, manipulations and sustained self-delusion of young men and women possessed of good fortune . . . and only looking for good lives.
September 1838. A storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and three ships–the Ibis, the Anahita and the Redruth–and those aboard are caught in the whirlwind.
River of Smoke follows the fortunes of these men and women to the crowded harbours of China where they struggle to cope with their losses–and, for a few, unimaginable freedoms–in the alleys and teeming waterways of nineteenth-century Canton.
Written on the grand scale of a historical epic, River of Smoke, book two in the Ibis trilogy, will be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty-first-century literature.
A motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts is sailing down the Hooghly aboard the Ibis on its way to Mauritius. As they journey across the Indian Ocean old family ties are washed away, and they begin to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship brothers who will build new lives for themselves in the remote islands where they are
being taken. A stunningly vibrant and intensely human work, Sea of Poppies, the first book in the Ibis trilogy, confirms Amitav Ghosh’s reputation as a master storyteller.
Bundook. Gun. A common word, but one which turns Deen Datta’s world upside down.
A dealer of rare books, Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors, but as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way. There is Piya, a fellow Bengali-American who sets his journey in motion; Tipu, an entrepreneurial young man who opens Deen’s eyes to the realities of growing up in today’s world; Rafi, with his desperate attempt to help someone in need; and Cinta, an old friend who provides the missing link in the story they are all a part of. It is a journey which will upend everything he thought he knew about himself, about the Bengali legends of his childhood and about the world around him.
Gun Island is a beautifully realised novel which effortlessly spans space and time. It is the story of a world on the brink, of increasing displacement and unstoppable transition. But it is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women.
