Nadeem Aslam’s tale of honor killings, Maps for Lost Lovers, has been placed on the long list for the Booker Prize this year (via Kitabkhana). Novelist Kamila Shamsie reviewed the book in the Guardian:
[T]he most extraordinary of the characters is Shamas’s wife, Kaukub… she is the young bride who used to step out of the bath and wake up her husband by twisting her hair into a yard-long rope and letting beads of water fall over him, but then grew into a woman who equates sex with shame and sin… a woman’s gold bracelet is composed of a series of semi-colons; dead tulips lean out of a bin like the necks of drunk swans; a falling icicle is a radiant dagger.
Thanks a million Manish for all of ur blogposts on literature, I started reading some new writers/novelists after a long time. The metaphors seem to be offbeat and out of place in this book review but a booker nomination/shortlist makes this novel worth reading. I bought “The impressionist”and “white teeth” after reading ur blog posts on literature and Iam enjoying reading both the novels. Thank u once again and looking forward to more blogposts on south asian literature.
Yes, I agree with prakruti. These posts are very refreshing. And I too, have turned to reading more ‘sort-of’ desi fiction lately. In my case, finishing a VS Naipaul novel I had started and never got around to finishing. Democracy comes to Elvira, indeed 🙂