Nadeem Aslam was years into his second novel when the 11 September attacks took place. Many writers said the books they were writing were now worthless, he recalls. Martin Amis, for one, felt his work in progress had been reduced to a pitiable babble. But Aslams saddened reaction to 9/11 was one of recognition. I thought, thats Maps for Lost Lovers – thats the book Im writing. The link might seem tenuous to a novel set many miles from the twin towers or Bin Ladens lair, in an almost cocooned urban community of Pakistani migrants and their offspring in the north of England, where Aslam grew up from the age of 14. The novel was almost pastoral in its tracing of the seasons, with riffs on jazz, painting and spectacular moths. Each chapter was as minutely embellished as the Persian and Mughal miniatures Aslam has in well-thumbed volumes on his coffee table. But the plot turns on a so-called honour killing, as an unforgiving brand of Islam takes hold. In his view, and above all for women, we were experiencing low-level September 11s every day. Maps for Lost Lovers, which took 11 years to write, and was published in 2004, won the Encore and Kiriyama awards (the latter recognises books that contribute to greater understanding of the Pacific Rim and South Asia). It was shortlisted for the Dublin Impac prize and longlisted for the Man Booker prize. His debut, Season of the Rainbirds (1993), set in small-town Pakistan, had also won prizes, and been shortlisted for the Whitbread first novel award. The books confirmed Aslam as a novelist of ravishing poetry and poise – admired by other writers including Salman Rushdie and AS Byatt.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 01:34:00 +0000
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