Book description
A world-class tale of love and deceit, rivalry and destiny from the
Lahore-based writer Uzma Aslam Khan.
'Standing in a room with eight thousand tiny creatures, witnessing them
perform a dance that few humans even knew occurred; this was life.
Everywhere she looked, each caterpillar nosed the air like a wand and
out passed silk… When Dia watched one spin, she came closer to
understanding the will of God than at any other time.'
Dia is the daughter of a silk farmer, Riffat - an innovative, decisive
businesswoman. Like her mother, Dia seems at first sight unrestricted,
spirited and resourceful. She seems free. But freedom has its own
borders, patrolled by the covetous and the zealous, and there are those
who yearn to jump the fence.
Daanish has come back to Karachi for his father's funeral, all the way
from America, a land where there are plenty of rules but few
restrictions. When Dia and Daanish meet, they chafe against all the
formalities. It is left to a handful of silkworms, slipped inside a
friend's dupatta, tickling skin, to rupture the fragile peace of both
their houses - to make the space in which Dia and Daanish can create
something together… 'A story of cultural and ethnic conflict in spare
and elegant prose that resonates beyond its immediate setting' Observer
'A haunting and beautiful book' Glasgow Sunday Mail
'Original and emotional… as intricately patterned and vivid as lengths
of top-quality silk.' Sunday Telegraph
'Cocoons are not the only things that explode in this novel. The silken
prose emphasises the conflict between the tender subject and a world (in
this case Pakistan) where violence of every sort has become
institutionalised. It is a self-confident novel and marks the emergence
of a new generation of Pakistani novelists unencumbered by the icons or
the ideology of a wretched state.' Tariq Ali Uzma Aslam Khan grew up
in Karachi. She is the author of one previous novel, The Story of Noble
Rot (2001). She has taught English language and literature in the United
States, Morocco, and in Pakistan. Currently she works for an NGO in
Lahore, where she lives with her husband.
