Product Description

At the heart of this extraordinary novel lies the character of Kaukab, a wife and mother increasingly out of touch with those she loves most: her homeland, her husband and her three increasingly estranged and westernised children. Her faith in her religion and family is her only support. The disappearance of her brother-in-law Jugnu and his lover Chanda and their suspected murder forms the dramatic backdrop for a year of turmoil in the life of Kaukab's splintering family. Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses both their joys and their pain in a language that is arrestingly poetic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10512 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Maps for Lost Lovers is a stunningly brave and searingly brutal novel charting a year in the life of a working class community from the subcontinent--a group described by author Nadeem Aslam as "Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and Sri Lankans living in a northern town". The older residents, who have left their homelands for the riches of England, have communally dubbed it Dasht-e-Tanhaii, which roughly translates as "the wilderness of solitude" or "the desert of loneliness". As the seasons change, from the first crystal flakes of snow that melt into "a monsoon raindrop", we slowly learn the fate of Jugnu and Chanda, a couple whose disappearance is rumoured to have been a result of their fatal decision to live in sin in a community where the phrase holds true meaning.

This uncompromisingly honest--and often uncomfortable to read--story is told through the eyes of Jugnu's brother's family who live next door. Shamas is director of the local Community Relations Council; a liberal, educated man he still mourns the passing of communism and yearns for passion in his later years. His wife Kaukub, daughter of a Pakistani cleric, is also in mourning for the passing of her devout Muslim upbringing and is forced to watch her three children turn "native". She tries increasingly desperate measures to turn them back to Islam. Pakistani-born Nadeem Aslam skilfully intertwines myths and legends with a harsh, modern reality. Tragic sub-plots of Romeo-and-Juliet proportions abound. And while some of the extended descriptive passages sit uneasily on the page and, towards the end, several rants against Islam forced through the mouths of characters become thinly-veiled lectures, nevertheless Maps for Lost Lovers is an epic work and an important milestone in British literature that deserves to be widely read by all multicultural societies seeking mutual tolerance and understanding. --Carey Green

Review
"'Despite the violence that lies at the heart of the novel, it is a celebration of love and life... This is that rare sort of book that gives a voice to those whose voices are seldom heard.' Observer; 'Nadeem Aslam is a genuinely exciting new voice, lively, confident, uninhibited and ambitious. This is one of the most impressive... novels of recent years' Salman Rushdie"

About the Author
Nadeem Aslam is the author of the award-winning novel Season of the Rainbirds (1993). He lives in the UK.

Customer Reviews

fantastic book
This book is so good that i would probably rate it as one of the best if not THE best book i have ever read. It follows the life of Shamas and Kaukab and how they deal with the mysterious disappearance of Shamas' brother Jugnu and Chanda. The book is so beautifully written and the author delves deep in creating the atmosphere and characters. He does so with such detail that you become immersed into his world. Each character is so real and the author takes parts of their lives and interweaves it into the main story in such a way that u don't get sidetracked or lose interest but it enhances the main plot.
The other main reason for loving this book is that it covers so many subjects that we as, british pakistanis/muslims face but don't talk about. But the author handles each topic with such sensitivity that u feel that u immediately relate. Thank you Mr Aslam for being brave enough to question and expose the truth of so many issues that are in each of our minds but are too timid to face.
In al, a fabulous book and i can't wait for the next one

Exquisite novel with an engaging plot...
A gorgeous poem of a novel with a strong narrative and complex, intriguingcharacterisation. While it may take a little time to get into the storybecause of the rather dreamy meditative opening, once in you'll begripped. It begins with the disappearance of two transgressing lovers ina small Asian immigrant community in England (were they murdered in an'honour killing'? or did they run away from a disapproving society?) andspirals out to look at the impact this has on the people left behind,primarily Shamas the romantic, idealistic patriarch of the central familyand his traditionalist Muslim wife Kaukab, a hidebound cleric's daughter. Aslam has a great description of their profoundly different, yet in theireffect, similar outlooks: Kaukab was 'too busy longing for the world andtime her grandparents came from and he too busy daydreaming about theworld and time his grandchildren were to inherit. Those around her wereless important to her than those buried under her feet and for him theimportant ones were those hovering over his head - those yet to be born'
At turns funny (the retort of a Muslim woman to a Hindu speculating onbirth defects produced by an 'incestuous' marriage between two cousinssprings to mind... she suggests that the critic look at her own gods whohave 'eyes in the middle of their foreheads and what about those six armedgoddesses that were more Swiss Army knives than deities?') and tragicthis is a remarkable novel which deserves to be widely read and enjoyed.

A Flag of a Deeper Colour
Maps for Lost Lovers takes place in 1997 and is set over the course of a year in an unnamed community in England with a large Muslim population. It's primary focus is a married couple, Shamas, a non-believer and Kaukab, his pious wife. There are many mysteries threaded throughout this beautifully written novel, but the central one focuses on the disappearance of Shamas' brother Jugnu and the woman he was living with, Chanda. The two were not married and therefore were perceived to be living in a state of sin according to Muslim belief. Chanda's two brothers have been accused of murdering the couple. Over the course of the year, the trial over their suspected murder unfolds and many hidden secrets of the community are brought to light. It's a story of great suspense, giving precious insight into a very closed community that is struggling to maintain the beliefs of the country they left and the religion which is in many ways antithetical to modern English life.

It took Aslam over ten years to write this novel, working largely in solitude and subsisting on a very humble income. The beautifully wrought passages attest to the concentrated labour used to create them and the vast amount of time he spent with these characters shows in the penetrating insight he gives to their individual minds and hearts. The lyrical style of the novel which uses metaphor upon metaphor might at first be a distraction to the reader. However, this persistent way of likening one thing to another reflects the attitudes of people in this community who persistently compare things in England to their home country. It's a device by the author to show how they are in some ways unable to see things in England as they really are. One of the most remarkable things about this novel is the shocking, extremely violent reactions by the Muslim community used to condemn some of the characters' actions. Aslam based all these events on real reported incidents. He also depicts the extremely intolerant and racist attitudes of non-Muslims to this community of immigrants. However, at the same time the author shows how deeply compassionate members of the community are to each other and the difficult struggle they experience trying to maintain their beliefs in opposition to the more extreme Muslim behaviour some of them disapprove of. Aslam has spoken about how moderate Muslim's need to speak up in today's world and dispel the popular Western view that all people of this religion are dangerous extremists. This rich, entertaining and poignant novel is a testament to that struggle.