About Book
As a youth, Qasim leaves his tribal village in the remote Himalayas for the plains. Caught up in the strife surrounding the creation of Pakistan, he takes an orphaned girl for his daughter and brings her to the bustling, decadent city of Lahore. Amid the pungent bazaars and crowded streets, Qasim makes his fortune and a home for the two of them. As the years pass, Qasim grows nostalgic about his life in the mountains while his hopelessly romantic teenage daughter, Zaitoon, imagines Qasim's homeland as a region of tall, kindly men who roam the Himalayas like gods. Impulsively, Qasim promises his daughter in marriage to a tribesman, but Zaitoon's fantasy soon becomes a grim reality of unquestioning obedience and unending labor. Bapsi Sidhwa’s acclaimed first novel is a robust, richly plotted story of colliding worlds straddled by a spirited girl for whom escape may not be an option.
About Author
Bapsi Sidhwa is the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of four novels: An American Brat, The Pakistani Bride, The Crow Eaters and Ice-Candy-Man, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was made into the film 1947: Earth by Deepa Mehta. She is also the editor of the anthology City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore.
Her work has been published in ten countries and has been translated into several languages. Born in Karachi, and brought up in Lahore, Sidhwa now lives in Houston, Texas.