Uzma Aslam Khan
Winner of The Bronze Award in The Independant Publishers Book Awards 2010
Foreword Magazine’s Best Books of 2009 Finalist
Featured in Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2009
‘Elegant, sensuous and fiercely intelligent, 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.’ Nadeem Aslam
‘Uzma Aslam Khan, a fearless young Pakistani novelist, writes about what lies beneath the surface—ancient fossils embedded in desert hillsides, truths hidden inside the language of everyday life. In The Geometry of God, set in 1970s and ’80s Pakistan, a young math whiz called Noman writes pseudoscience for his father’s cohort of religious extremists while secretly gravitating toward the diehard evolutionist, Zahoor, and his adventurous granddaughter, Amal. As faith and reason fatally collide, Amal’s blind younger sister, Mehwish, tries to decipher a world she cannot see but understands better than most. Khan’s urgent defense of free thought and action—often galvanized by strong-minded, sensuous women—courses through every page of this gorgeously complex book; but what really draws the reader in is the way Mehwish taste-tests the words she hears, as if they were pieces of fruit, and probes the meaning of human connection in a culture of intolerance, but also of stubborn hope.’ Oprah Magazine
‘The characters, the poetry and the philosophical questions she raises are rendered with a power and beauty that make this novel linger in the mind and heart.’ Kirkus Review
‘Beautifully written, funny and full of tension, The Geometry of God not only gives great insights into Pakistani culture and thinking, but also strives to be great entertainment. With its playful language and vivid characters, it will give you what you expect from a novel: a great read.’ Metro Éireann
‘The connections are finely layered in this delicately crafted book. There is no denying the sensitivity with which Khan writes. The writing is extremely elegant.’ Indian Express
‘A simultaneous rush that has funniness, absurdity, shock, tenderness, revelation and great sex.’ First City
‘Khan undoubtedly breaks the mould. She carves a sublime story of new and old with contemporary panache’ Dawn
‘the characters, the poetry and the philosophical questions she raises are rendered with a power and beauty that make this novel linger in the mind and heart.’ Kirkus Review (starred review)
‘Throughout this complex narrative, Ms. Khan writes with unfailing intelligence and linguistic magic.’ Washington Times
‘The Geometry of God becomes that rare creature, a novel where the urgency of the message is matched by the verve of the narrative…the author’s intelligence, imprinted on every page like a watermark, blooms into full colour when delving into Mehwish’s strange and lovely inner world…The book may be (and probably will be) read by many as a primer to the growth of fundamentalism in the region; to my mind, however, that is the least of what this gorgeous, complex stunner of a novel offers.’ Eclectica (Click here for full review)
Sales
- Rupa & Co India
- Neri Pozza Italy
- Editions Philippe Picquier France
- Alfaguara Spain
- Clockroot Books/Interlink USA & Canada
- Haus UK
- Elan Vital Pakistan
Material: Indian edition; US edition (384pp); various others