Salt and Saffron

Description

By the acclaimed winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018 The Dard-e-Dils are characterised by their prominent clavicles and love of stories. Aliya may not have inherited her family's patrician looks, but she is prey to their legends that stretch back to the days of Timur Lang. There is a sting to most of these tales, for the Dard-e-Dils consider themselves cursed by their 'not-quite' twins. Amidst her growing attraction to a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Aliya begins to believe that she is another 'not-quite' twin, linked to her scandalous aunt Mariam in a way that hardly bodes well...

Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London. @kamilashamsie

Beautifully written in cunning, punning, glancing prose * Independent * A whirlwind ... Owes plenty to Salman Rushdie and some to Hollywood ... Exuberant, knowingly exotic and deceptively serious * Guardian * Kamila Shamsie has created a rich, bright world * Times Literary Supplement * A funny, clever and romantic story ... perhaps Kamila Shamsie is our new multi-culti Nancy Mitford; a global girl who does love in both hot and cold climates -- Barbara Trapido The stories within the stories describe Pakistani society, its peoples and its mores, better than anything that has come from the Other Side for a long time. This is a good read * India Today *