THE STORY OF A WIDOW: A NOVEL
Knopf Canada | Picador India
ISBN: 978-0307397188 (Knopf) | 9780330510837 (Picador India)
Price: C$29.95 | Indian Rs. 495.00

BREAKING NEWS
Farooqi's novel, The Story Of A Widow has been longlisted for 2010 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

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REVIEW QUOTES

FROM India Today: May 18, 2009
"This is a gem of a book and the author is a real find. At last the subcontinent can rejoice in having acquired its own avatar of the iconic Jane Austen… Here is the same keen observation of social mores, the sympathy for human foibles, the rapier-like wit that makes one laugh aloud and the simple, elegant prose in which it is all expressed… the nuances of family relationships are minutely explored, culture and tradition impartially observed, and hypocrisies exposed by Farooqi`s profoundly perceptive eye…Bravo!"

FROM Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 19, Dated May 16, 2009
"The author writes a prose so carefully understated that the impatient reader will hear nothing other than the machinery of the plot. His measured cadences hold a wry good humour and a warm sympathy for human frailty that are revealed only on dwelling with the book…In the telling of his tale, Farooqi joins issue unobtrusively with those who see the novel as a vehicle for either easy ethnography or cultural exceptionalism...The author applies himself to remembering something far more intangible than faraway place or lost language — the contrariness of the family ties that the individual experiences. The novel is grounded in the ordinary transactions that define such ties and devotes itself to showing that they are endowed with mystery and beauty, and that they are of the world than of any one people."

FROM Outlook India Magazine: May 18, 2009
Just as one despaired of ever reading an old-fashioned novel with a credible story and characters and an uncluttered style, comes this charming tale from Pakistan. It has no sex, no violence, and no cultural or political angst. In short, none of the mandatory prerequisites of contemporary fiction…Farooqi is able to explore the mannered life of Karachi’s genteel classes at a pace that is leisurely but tightly leashed, and graceful but perceptive, and in a language so exquisitely nuanced that nowhere can one forget that this is Karachi, not Delhi or Dubai. This facet gives the novel a quality of comfort with the story…

“Tender, heartwarming and unabashedly sentimental, in Mona, Farooqi has created everyone’s ideal woman: she can make you laugh and cry on the same page. The Story of A Widow is an ultra-realistic miniature in which Farooqi has evoked the tribulations of extended families and mid-life with sparse prose. If Jane Austen had grown up in a Karachi suburb, this is what she would have written.”
—Mohammed Hanif, author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes.

"Farooqi's characters quickly establish themselves by dint of personality. This is no small feat in a book that is essentially plot driven...What Farooqi does so well in The Story of a Widow is illustrate the nuanced machinations of familiar relationships. He also shows the subtle influences of increasingly voluminous family chatter. The third-person point of view, and a driving narrative of event, consequence and response, lends a grounding (and occasionally grinding) reality to this life-affirming work. —Margaret MacPherson, The Edmonton Journal

Farooqi succeeds splendidly with this novel...You could call it a coming-of-age novel about a woman who is already of age —James Macgowan , The Ottawa Citizen

Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s The Story of a Widow skilfully portrays a woman’s metamorphosis toward individual freedom and the reactions she faces as she sheds the traditional meaning of honour...The Story of a Widow is a satisfying read that offers a fresh perspective from an unlikely heroine.—Amna Ali, The Toronto Star

Editor's Choice - The Vancouver Sun

“Readers are not so much transported to suburban Karachi as they are transplanted into the heart of an Indian family. And families are . . . well, families, it seems, are the same world over. . . . [The Story of a Widow is a] charming and insightful novel.”—The Montreal Gazette

“I loved The Story of a Widow! It is a novel full of charm and humor, and Farooqi writes about Mona Ahmad and her attempts to negotiate a world full of interfering if well-meaning relativves with a warm understanding of human frailties."
—Anita Rau Badami, author of Can You Hear The Nightbird Call?

"The subtlety of Farooqi's narrative conveys empathy for his endearing heroine and sets Widow apart from similar stories that are encumbered by clichés." — Straight.com

RANDOM HOUSE BOOK LOUNGE AUTHOR INTERVIEW

STORYLINE
In a neighbourhood in Karachi, Mona, a recently widowed mother of two grown women, is trying to settle into her new life. Things take an unexpected turn when the mysterious Salamat Ali becomes a tenant at her neighbour’s house—and he begins to court the widow. His attentions cause Mona to reconsider her first marriage, and what she wants from her life. An impertinent proposal of marriage throws things considerably further into chaos. As her family swoops in to defend her honour, Mona asserts herself against their ministrations and makes a most unexpected decision.

FORTHCOMING FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
Romanian, Persian, Urdu

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF CHARACTERS (From Pages Bookshop website)
READER'S GUIDE: (From Random House wesbite)
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: (From Random House website)
BOOKBITS INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG RINTOUL (From Bookbits website)

EXCERPT
After paying the salaries of the household staff, Mona was released from accounting for every small sum spent during the month. But even a year after Akbar Ahmad’s death, she could not spend money impulsively, but it happened more and more frequently that she bought something she liked—an ornamental bowl for the coffee table, or new curtains for her bedroom.

One day, while shopping with her daughter Amber, Mona spent three thousand rupees on a small rosewood table with marquetry work. After they returned home, as Amber helped her unwrap the table, Mona’s gaze unconsciously travelled up to her husband’s portrait. The expression on Akbar Ahmad’s face was one of shock and disbelief. Mona went out into the garden before his remonstrating looks became unbearable.

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SALAR JANG'S PASSION
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Summersdale Publishers
Publication Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN-10: 1840242248
ISBN-13: 978-1840242249

STORYLINE
The sleepy town of Purana Shehr is happy to trundle along in a round of petty arguments over tea and frustrated fantasies. Until, that is, the arrival of the termites. In the narrow lanes, grubby markets and dilapidated houses of the Topee Mohalla neighbourhood, ambitions are forming and passions are stirring as the termites march in.

Against a backdrop of destruction, where the very economy of the town is under threat (due to the insects' voracious consumption of hard currency), the residents of Topee Mohalla begin to come to life. A royal chaos ensues as boundaries are broken, old fools are made, dreams indulged, young wives chased, roaring affairs conducted and overhand plots are hatched. At the eye of the storm, Salar Jang, an eccentric septuagenarian with a fortune to bequeath, embarks upon an increasingly bizarre courtship of the indomitable and sexually voracious Madame Firdousi, much to the dismay of his only heir and daughter. And as the pests set to with their pincers, Purana Shehr flounders in Shakespearian farce in the heat of post-monsoon Pakistan.

REVIEW
Musharraf Farooqi's first novel takes the unprepossessing subject of termite infestation and uses it as a peg upon which to hang a tale of hectic brilliance. This is a powerful, sweeping novel that puts the life of a little Pakistani town and its inhabitants under the microscope, as the termites take over their lives. The town of Purana Shehr is prey to the normal neighbourly squabbles, unrequited passions and minor business scams. Everyone rubs along comfortably with their fellow citizens, until the descent of the voracious insects. As buildings and furniture begin to crumble, eaten away from the inside, community solidarity starts to break down. The unscrupulous seize the opportunity to use the infestation for financial gain, and it's every man for himself in the face of the marauding insects. Meanwhile, Salar Jang, an elderly widower with a fortune at his disposal and desperate for a wife, turns his lascivious eye upon the rapacious actress Madame Firdousi. His daughter, Bano Tamanna, watches in dismay as she imagines her inheritance disappearing into Madame Firdousi's clutches. As this bizarre courtship progresses, the lovelorn Salar Jang is being encouraged in his passion by Ladlay, a devious notary with an agenda of his own. The termites chomp away, causing widespread destruction in the narrow streets of the Topee Molhalla district from cinema to meat market as passions come to a head. Musharraf Farooqi has an almost Dickensian eye for the ridiculous; Salar Jang's ongoing legal battle with his tenants certainly has more than a whiff of Jarndyce and Jarndyce about it. There are countless larger-than-life characters, each with their own idiosyncrasies, ranging from the cinema-mad Mirza Poya to the hapless Qudratullah, pining for the heartless Mushtri. Oblivious to everything but his theories for the evolution of eternity is Mirzban Yunani, the absent-minded husband of Babo Tamanna. This is a hugely enjoyable panorama of a Pakistani community coping with the fallout of a natural disaster. Farooqi treats his characters with affectionate amusement; he revels in the imaginative use of language, and his prose has the maturity and insight of a young Salman Rushdie. Rarely has a debut novel displayed such broad vision and compassion, leavened with a healthy dose of humour. (Kirkus UK)

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