Maps for Lost Lovers - (Vintage International) by Nadeem Aslam (Paperback)

About the Book

Set in an unnamed town in England, this is a deeply felt, lyrical, and moving novel about a Pakistani family at a crossroads of culture, nationality, religion, and the most intimate crises of faith.

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE KIRIYAMA PRIZE - If Gabriel García Márquez had chosen to write about Pakistani immigrants in England, he might have produced a novel as beautiful and devastating as Maps for Lost Lovers.

Jugnu and Chanda have disappeared. Like thousands of people all over England, they were lovers and living together out of wedlock. To Chanda's family, however, the disgrace was unforgivable. Perhaps enough so as to warrant murder.

As he explores the disappearance and its aftermath through the eyes of Jugnu's worldly older brother, Shamas, and his devout wife, Kaukab, Nadeem Aslam creates a closely observed and affecting portrait of people whose traditions threaten to bury them alive. The result is a tour de force, intimate, affecting, tragic and suspenseful.

Review Quotes

WINNER OF THE KIRIYAMA PRIZE

"Impressive. . . . [Aslam's] prose is stylistically dazzling. . . . His characters' inner lives are explored in-depth, flaws and all. . . . A novel as affecting as it is provocative."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Extraordinary. . . . It deepens our knowledge of life. . . . Aslam has created a novel which-grave yet exultant, brutal but compassionate-achieves its complex humanity, and its final affirmations of love and beauty, through a real reckoning with despair and heartbreak."--The New York Review of Books

"Artful . . . and heartbreaking. . . . [Aslam's] prose is richly atmospheric, his tone engagingly introspective."--The New York Times Book Review

"A writer's tour de force. . . . Powerful."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Aslam is a rich and vividly metaphorical writer . . . This is an exquisitely sad novel, and it is worth the effort of letting its spell take you over."--Newsday

"Poetic, sensuous, precisely descriptive and lavishly allusive prose . . . Maps for Lost Lovers not only an important and memorable achievement, but a book that is deeply satisfying to read."--The Washington Times

"Aslam reveals-artfully and heartbreakingly-a psychology at war with itself . . . His prose is richly atmospheric, his tone engagingly introspective."--Akash Kapur, The New York Times Book Review

"[An] exquisitely crafted, lushly written novel . . . Aslam combines sensual prose with a compelling storyline."--Booklist

"Poignant, lushly written . . . a truthful story that resists easy conclusions."--Publishers Weekly

"[A] painstakingly crafted exploration of cultural conflict . . . exquisite."--Kirkus

About the Author

Nadeem Aslam is the author of a previous award-winning novel, Season of the Rainbirds (1993). He was born in Pakistan and now lives in England.