Maps for Lost Lovers by Aslam Nadeem October 10th: 2pm and October 31st: 7pm 2007

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam

A group of ten of us met today to talk about this remarkable book, and we were unanimous in our admiration of it, and of the style in which it is written. It tells of events which affect a Pakistani family living in an un-named city in Britain, and of how these events impinge on their community.
Around this family is painted a detailed and revelatory picture of Muslim life, a sensitive topic for these times, but told with calm and unflinching directness by the author, himself a Muslim. We all noted that his style and use of language were somehow not those of a British-born writer. The book is rich in imagery, poetic in its descriptions, full of beauty and colour, all of which contribute to the “foreignness” of its themes, and transform its British location into somewhere unfamiliar and exotic.
The story itself is complex, but at its centre is the mother of the family, a middle-aged Muslim of fervent devoutness, stranded, with her strict and unbending beliefs within an equally rigid Pakistani community, in 21stcentury Britain. Around her unfold a tragic sequence of events, which she can only watch with helpless bewilderment. None of us was left unmoved by the desperate sadness of this woman`s life; but there were other emotions too, aroused by the oppressive and cruel control system imposed by the laws of Islam, especially over women, and the double-standards shown by the men on whom they depended. But both men and women colluded to prop up this system and defend its values, at whatever personal cost, in the face of the “Western” lifestyle that surrounded them. With limited success, however, since the children of the family, with such irreconcileable forces tugging them in opposite directions, had choices to make.
Naseem Aslam took 11 years to write this book, not with the idea of delivering a message, but as a way of understanding his own life. We all felt, even though it needed some effort to get into, that it more than rewarded a slow read, and was one of the most worthwhile books on the “list” this year.