Trespassing: A Novel [Paperback]

Uzma Aslam Khan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2005

Back in Karachi for his father's funeral, Daanish, a young Pakistani changed by his years at an American university, is entranced by Dia, a fiercely independent heiress to a silk factory in the countryside. Their illicit affair will forever rupture two households and three families, destroying a stable present built on the repression of a bloody past.

In this sweeping novel of modern Pakistan, Uzma Aslam Khan takes us from the stifling demands of tradition and family to the daily oppression of routine political violence, from the gorgeous sensual vistas of the silk farms to the teeming streets of Karachi--stinking, crumbling, and corrupt.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Khan limns the conflicts between modern Western and traditional Pakistani mores in an intelligent, ambitious novel (her first to be published in the U.S.) about two star-crossed young lovers in contemporary Karachi. Daanish, a journalism student in "Amreeka," as his aunt calls it, returns home to Karachi for the funeral of his beloved father, a prominent, forward-thinking doctor. He catches the eye of a comely Karachi student, Nini, with whom his traditional mother would like him to make an advantageous marriage. But when Daanish meets Nini's best friend, the thoughtful and challenging Dia Monsour, who helps run her family's silk farm, romance blossoms quickly. Their families' disapproval casts a pall over their meetings, though, and Daanish begins to feel uncertain about seeing Dia as the date for his return to America draws closer. Khan's portrayal of life in Karachi, seen from multiple perspectives, is rich and complex, and her supporting characters, such as Salaamat, a young fisherboy who becomes a driver for a group of freedom fighters whose attacks have a deadly impact on Dia's family, add great depth. Khan's frequent flashbacks can be jarring, and the affair between Dia and Daanish is stretched perilously thin as the primary story line, but Khan's prose, ornate yet precise in its discussions of both love and politics, mark her as a truly gifted observer of moments grand and minute.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This sweeping novel of 1990s Pakistan, Khan's first to be published in the U.S., begins with a murder. Dia's father is killed, leaving her mother to run the family's profitable silk farm and textile factories. Most unlikely of all, Dia's mother wants Dia to marry not for social status but for love. Dia's story is interwoven with that of her cook's family, who moved from a coastal village to Karachi in search of work and now lives among wealth but without it. And when middle-class but American-educated Daanish returns to Karachi to bury his father, he and Dia become enmeshed in a love affair that cannot thrive in its setting. Sections of the novel are told from points of view within each of the three families, giving readers insights from a variety of political, religious, and class perspectives. Khan tackles political and religious themes as adroitly as she handles the haunting love story, and what emerges is a brilliant, lush portrait of Karachi, a metropolis teeming with corruption, violence, and social tension. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Picador (October 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312423551
• ISBN-13: 978-0312423551
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Uzma Aslam Khan was born in Lahore and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of The Story of Noble Rot (Penguin India 2001; reissued by Rupa in 2009), Trespassing (Metropolitan/Henry Holt 2004), and The Geometry of God (Clockroot Books/Interlink Publishing 2009). Trespassing was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize 2003 and translated into thirteen languages. The Geometry of God was voted one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2009 and won a bronze medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2010. It has recently been released in Italy, Spain, and France.

Khan has contributed articles to various newspapers and journals around the world, including Drawbridge UK, Counterpunch USA, and Dawn Pakistan. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including And The World Changed (Feminist Press 2008) and Granta 112: Pakistan (Grove Press, Granta 2010). Visit the author at http://uzmaaslamkhan.blogspot.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifullly Written, Unapologetically Truthful - A Powerful Combination!, May 30, 2006

By 

Sharon Khurana "Sharon Pinto Khurana" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trespassing: A Novel (Hardcover)

An amazing story of love, lust, power, greed, self-preservation, and self-loathing. The author does an amazing job of challenging our own value system by pushing us to see how all of these powerful states of being emanate from the universal "need to belong". Trespassing is a scintillating tale of the existential angst experienced by its characters, as well as an poignant cautionary essay on how the personal becomes political and vice versa.

Looking forward to Ms. Khan's next novel!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars utterly original, October 29, 2004

By 

an avid reader "v.p." (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trespassing: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is not like other books I've ready by Indian and Pakistan authors. It stands on its own. This is not to say that it isn't about the place; it is, specifically, about Karachi during the turbulent 80s and early 90s. But the story and the very accessible and intimate style its told in resonates beyond its own borders in a way that not all subcon literature -- in fact, not all literature -- does for me, especially these days. Trespassing is charged, even fierce. And yet it is very tender. It is this combination that makes it feel so real. Plot-wise, all the many threads tie up so smoothly and at such a high dramatic pitch that I raced through this book in just three days. Then I went back and read some of my favorite passages again. Extremely powerful. A must read!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an engaging novel..., October 15, 2004

By 

Felicia Sullivan (New York, ny United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trespassing: A Novel (Hardcover)

Reviewed by Patty Payette for Small Spiral Notebook

"You zip me up." Daanish, a young Pakistani student, tries to explain to his secret lover, Dia, why he is compelled to seek out her company in Uzma Aslam Khan's new novel Trespassing. Torn between traditional familial and cultural expectations and his modern sensibilities, Daanish uses Dia to assuage his cultural confusion. Dia, determined to marry for love rather than convenience, seeks out Daanish as a soul mate despite the fact that he has been tapped as the suitable match for her best friend Nissrine.

Khan sets the budding relationship during the tumultuous political and cultural context of Pakistan during the Gulf War. With elegant, precise prose, Khan fleshes out the margins of her story by moving back and forth in time and giving over the story telling alternately to Daanish and Dia as well as others close to the lovers, including their mothers. This narrative choice enlarges the scope of the novel, transforming this tale of star-crossed lovers into a story of cultural crisis.

Much to her credit, Khan is interested in dismantling stereotypes and starts with her leading lovers. The novel opens as Daanish is called back home to Kaarachi from his college studies in the United States for his father's funeral. His semesters in "Amreeka" have been liberating, although he questions his choice of a journalism career and his ability to be the dutiful son that his father expected and his mother now needs. Introspective and sullen, loyal and creative, Daanish is an eligible, albeit moody, bachelor. Dia is the spirited daughter of a nontraditional mother who is helping her mother run her silk farm and factory while dreaming of a life beyond her circumscribed sphere. Their relationship becomes a convenient escape from the stressors of their individual pasts, presents and their looming, uncertain futures.

Khan surprised and impressed this reviewer by bringing their relationship to an abrupt end with a whimper, not a bang. After their trysts are discovered, Daanish drops Dia rather than whisk her back to America. Her love complicates his burgeoning new role as his mother's provider and husband-to-be of her best friend. Their last telephone call ends with awkward silences that are as true-to-life as the bickering and kissing that marked their secret meetings. The disappointments, secrets and unspoken expectations that swirl around Daanish and Dia and their friends and family members make the title of this novel resonate with real life complexities.

Trespassing spins out an intricate web of relationships while illustrating the ways in which we trespass against ourselves and each other as we grapple with a rapidly changing world and grasp for something or someone to anchor us.