Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
The Dard-e-Dils are characterised by their clavicles and love of stories. Aliya may not have inherited her family's patrician looks, but she is as much a prey to the legends of her family that stretch back to the days of Timur Lang. Aristocratic and eccentric - the clan has plenty of stories to tell, and secrets to hide." "But there is a sting to most tales, for the Dard-e-Dils are cursed by their 'not-quite' twins. Aliya begins to believe that she is another 'not-quite twin' cosmically connected with her aunt Mariam and in a way that hardly bodes well." "'Mariam Apa' mysteriously arrives the day Aliya is born, claiming that she is the daughter of the long lost Taimur - a great uncle of Aliya's. She offers no proof except the characteristic collarbone but is warmly embraced into the family fold. Mariam utters not a single word except to dictate the daily menu to Masood the family cook. Under her direction, Masood's masterful cooking becomes ambrosial. The stories that Aliya tells are full of the aroma of pulaos, and the mouth-melting softness of kababs. Food and love collide and soon scandal erupts in the family." "Mariam's story becomes especially relevant for Aliya when she falls in love with Khaleel - a boy from an unsuitable background. Determined to solve the mystery of Mariam, and resolve her dilemma, Aliya sets out to discover what the meaning of the family curse truly is.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Clever, witty and inventive, this engaging novel tackles the challenges of reconciling one culture's progressive values with another's allegiance to family and tradition. Shamsie, well-known in her native Pakistan for a prize-winning first novel, In the City by the Sea, writes about Anglo-Indian culture clash with a subtlety and wit that recall Rushdie. Aliya, just graduated from an American college, heads home for the summer to her family in Pakistan for another kind of education, this one focused on the dynamics of class and love and directed by her well-heeled but intolerant relatives. While lively, likable characters with a shared passion for relaying stories from the family's colorful past, Aliya's kin annoy her with their disdain for those who do not share their distinguished lineage. The storied family curse of "not-quite-twins," relatives close in age who share a cosmic connection and disgrace the family's name, becomes more threat than myth when an aunt labels Aliya and her beloved cousin, Mariam Apa, as "not-quites." Indeed, Aliya has been bitterly estranged from a number of her relatives, especially her grandmother Dadi, since their scornful rejection of Mariam, a near-mute who eloped with the family cook. When Aliya finds herself drawn to a Westernized Pakistani whose parents hail from the slums of Karachi, her disillusionment with her family's snobbery and her identification with the unfortunate Mariam intensifies. However, as Aliya leans more about her family's tangled history, especially her grandmother's life and the three men at the center of it brothers divided by India and Pakistan's separation she learns that she, too, has been quick to judge. Her family turns out to be more passionate and complex than Aliya assumes, just as this winning novel resonates more deeply than its lighthearted tone would suggest. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Library Journal
Shamsie's second novel (following In the City by the Sea) centers on a Pakistani woman caught between the 21st century and her family's feudal past, between salt (ordinary people) and saffron (the elite). Saffron is a luxury, but salt is a necessity, Aliya learns in this charming, witty exploration of class values. In the Dard-e-Dil family, descended from land-rich nawabs, there's a history of "not-quites" (twins, triplets, cousins) who are fated to bring dishonor upon their name. Aliya's "not-quite" is cousin Mariam Apa, who elopes with the cook. Will Aliya repeat history by falling for Khaleel, from Karachi's other side of the tracks? Mysterious Mariam Apa preoccupies Aliya's brooding summer as she tries to make sense of family lore. But center stage is held by her beguiling grandmother, Dadi, beloved by "not-quite" triplet brothers, whose past serves up the climax of this erudite, disarming novel. Shamsie is from a literary/artistic family that includes great-aunt Attia Hosain and mother Muneeza Shamsie (both writers) and filmmaker cousin Waris Hosain. Recommended for all collections.--Jo Manning, Barry Univ., Miami Shores, FL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\Kirkus Reviews
Shamsie's second novel (In the City by the Sea, 1998, not reviewed) concerns the impact of caste, history, family lore, and globalization on a college-age Pakistani woman studying in the States.Book Details
Published
May 15, 2002
Publisher
Bloomsbury USA
Pages
256
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781582342610