UZMA ASLAM KHAN

THE GEOMETRY OF GOD

"Elegant, sensuous and fiercely intelligent, 'The Geometry of God' takes an argument that is in danger of becoming stale - that of fundamentalism vs free thinking among Muslims - and animates it in a wonderfully inventive story that pits science against politics and the freedom of women against the insecurities of men." Kamila Shamsie

'Such wonderful and persuasive writing. No one writes like her about the body, about the senses, about the physical world. Uzma Aslam Khan is the writer whose new novel I look forward to the most.' Nadeem Aslam

The paleantologist Zahoor is trying to do his research while General Zia is launching a campaign to Islamize knowledge. Science is being rewritten and called Islamic Science. The teaching of evolution is banned. Nothing is natural or accidental; everything is ‘revealed’ and ‘ordained.’ On a fossil dig in the Salt Range of the Punjab, an area that once lay beneath the Tethys Sea, Zahoor’s granddaughter, Amal, finds proof of the ‘dog-whale’. No one knows it yet but she has found Pakicetus, the oldest known primitive whale.

Back at home bad news awaits. Amal’s baby sister Mehwish has become blind and Amal will have to stay home to raise her. Mehwish’s world is both magical and terrifying. Through Amal she learns to read a seeing person’s alphabet. She can also ‘see’ Amal’s drawings of primitive whales. Her grandfather teaches her illegal English love poems.

Meanwhile, in Lahore, Noman, neurotic, very funny (and horny), an aspiring mathematician, hopes to one day find a number like a magic bloom. Instead, he’s appointed secretary to his father, a minister in the Party of Creation. His father wants Noman to create a pure science to help put the youth of Pakistan back on the Straight Path. Noman now finds himself attending conferences on scientific miracles all around the world and editing a magazine called Akhlaq, in which he picks out verses from the Quran to ‘prove’ that evolution does not exist. The problem is, he could just as easily find verses that prove it does. Instead of finding the Straight Path, Noman finds Zahoor.

While the culture war between the Islamists and the secularists rages, Noman bats for both sides: working for his father, while turning increasingly to Zahoor, a man who believes that mathematicians are also artists, philosophers scientists, architects poets. The friendship between Noman, Zahoor, Amal and Mehwish grows into a parallelogram, shaped by and shaping each other. And then, on Amal’s wedding, tragedy strikes. The friends must realign yet again. It seems it will take an old man on trial to make youth find itself.

“The connections are finely layered in this delicately crafted book. There is no denying the sensitivity with which Khan writes. She is impeccably restrained when it comes to handling emotions. The rhythm of this novel is intriguing. The writing is extremely elegant. Especially when she writes about Mehwish, who speaks as she hears, turning traditional spelling and words on their head.” Indian Express


Material: Finished copies
Sales: Rupa & Co India (October 2007); Neri Pozza Italy; Editions Philippe Picquier France; Santillana Spain; Sextante Portugal.

TRESPASSING

SHORLISTED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE (EURASIA REGION) 2003 & THE MOST WIDELY PUBLISHED PAKISTANI AUTHOR EVER

'A contemporary romantic tragedy displays a startling fresh voice as Khan illuminates the complex social, religious and economic mores of Pakistan while offering an outsiders hard-eyed perspective on American attitudes during the first Gulf War. A rare, wonderful gift of a novel that defies mere plot synopsis: a complex fictional world that illuminates the real one and seamlessly merges the personal with the larger sociopolitical conundrums we all face today.' Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 'Original and emotional...as intricately patterned and vivid as lengths of top-quality silk.' Sunday Telegraph 'TRESPASSING is a self-confident novel that marks the emergence of a new generation of Pakistani novelists.' Tariq Ali ‘We glimpse a Pakistan – that no writer in English has, as far as I know, ever depicted before… a delicate erotic tale spun from threads of timeless myth’ Independent ‘Original and emotional’ Sunday Telegraph ‘A stunning, intricate novel… the book’s epic scope is enhanced by its interweaved narratives of beautifully realised characters.’ Metro

Material: Finished copies(448 pages).

Sales: Flamingo UK; Penguin India; Metropolitan USA; Alhamra Pakistan; Alfaguara World Spanish; RBA Catalan; Neri Pozza Editore Italy; Editions Philippe Picquier France; Van Gennep/Rainbow pocket NL; Psichogios Greece; Ambar Portugal; Ordfront Sweden; Europa Verlag Germany; Inkilap Turkey; Alfa-Narodna Knjiga Serbia; Det Norske Samlaget Norway; Bertrand Brasil (Record) Brazil; Alhamra Pakistan;Carmel Israel.

Press Reviews:

'...we glimpse a Pakistan - in particular, the environs of Karachi - that no writer in English has, as far as I know, ever depicted before...a delicate erotic tale spun from threads of timeless myth.' Independent

'Khan's second novel reverses the East-to-West pilgrimage so fashionable in recent sub-continental fiction. Instead her main character, Daanish, returns to his native Karachi after studying in the US, where he meets Dia, the daughter of a silk farmer. Against a solidly researched background of Pakistan's turbulent political climate in 1980s and 90s, Khan creates a story of cultural and ethnic conflict in spare and elegant prose that resonates beyond its immediate setting.' The Observer

'Khan tackles political and religious themes as adroitly as she handles the haunting love story, and what emerges is a brilliant, lush portrait of Karachi, a metropolis teeming with corruption, violence, and social tension.' Booklist

'Set between Pakistan and America during the 1980s and early 1990s, Uzma Aslam Khan’s stunning, intricate novel, TRESPASSING, has complex political conflict woven into the fabric of a narrative framed around the illicit relationship between Daanish and Dia. The book’s epic scope, encompassing global conflicts as well as very personal concerns, is enhanced by its subtle language and its interweaved narratives of beautifully realised characters. ‘I was in the States during the first Gulf War,’ says Khan. ‘In the book, Daanish is there as a journalism student, and I couldn’t have him there and it not be a political critique. His main concern is that he can’t ask questions about the war, so it becomes an issue of freedom of speech. The frustrating thing is that he is in a country that had this impression of freedom and is not free at all.’ The lack of freedom of information, which Khan also experienced as a student in America, is mirrored by a parallel situation in her native Pakistan. ‘The press is stifled in Pakistan,’ she says. ‘And issues that affect women are even more censored.’ TRESPASSING is set during Pakistan’s most recently turbulent period; Dia’s father is murdered during a random kidnapping. ‘Growing up in Karachi in the 1980s, kidnappings were rampant. I knew of families whose members were kidnapped, and so did everyone else.’ Yet Khan didn’t set out to write a political book. ‘I didn’t intend to write statements,’ she insists. ‘But America is a society I respect on many levels and I’m critical of in many ways. And it’s the same with Pakistan. You can’t stop the questioning.'Metro

'Uzma Aslam Khan gives us a Karachi of heart, humidity and perpetual noise – a place formed by waves of conquest and crowded with refugees from other conflicts. To Daanish, returning from the US for his father’s funeral it is a place of discomfort and restraint. While his mother struggles to arrange a marriage for him, he takes refuge in memories of shell-collecting with his father in a secret cove later used for his own courtship of Dia. Given the news of his wife’s unfaithfulness, Dia’s overweight father hides like a great grub in the branches of a mulberry tree. When his bullet-riddled body is dragged from a river, the talk is of business rivalry or random kidnapping. Young Salaamat is beaten and left for dead when he prevents a poacher stealing turtle eggs. After the family trade is ruined by foreign trawlers he finds work decorating the city buses before joining the US-financed separatist fighters. Dia’s mother Riffat’s dream of reviving the local silk industry is threatened by the protection demanded by the local warlords and the damning of the Indus. The book moves skilfully between private agonies and the big dirty politics of the region: the fall of soot after the US bombing of Iraqi oilfields stands as a metaphor for the blighting of Dia and Daanish’s love, while the natural miscellany of turtles, seashells and silkworms belongs to a more harmonious world, still just possible. Khan’s picture of her home town is detailed, generous and committed so that even after 400-odd pages you sense a larger book trying to get out.'
Stephen Blanchard, TIME OUT, "Book of the Week"

'It is both as strong and as delicate as silk thread and the prose is as lustrous as an ornate scarf.' Waterstone's Books Quarterly

UZMA ASLAM KHAN grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of one previous novel, THE STORY OF NOBLE ROT, originally published to great acclaim in both India and Pakistan by Penguin India (March 2001); now to be reissued by Rupa & Co India. She has taught English language and literature in the US, Morocco and Pakistan, and now lives in Lahore with her husband, author David Maine. http://www.uzmaaslamkhan.blogspot.com/ Karwan-e-Hayat Uzma Aslam Khan would like to refer you to the following website: www.keh.org.pk This is a hospital for the mentally ill in Karachi, launched in 2004, and an extension of a non-profit organization that's been giving free medical help to patients since 1983. There is no other such organization in Pakistan, a country of 150 million people. Please visit the website, spread the word, and, if you are in a position to help, please do so.