The House of Bilqis
A Novel
-
- $5.99
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
A haunting novel about a mother and son and the emotional consequences of leaving home
The matriarch Bilqis Khan, a widowed university professor, is dismayed when her only son Samad marries Kate, a white Australian woman, and settles in Melbourne rather than returning home to Pakistan. Though Samad attempts to convince his mother to join them in Australia, she insists on remaining in Karachi, presiding over the family's crumbling estate, even while tensions in the government are mounting, making the country progressively more dangerous. Meanwhile, Bilqis's devoted servant Mumtaz enters a relationship with a freedom fighter, risking her and her family's honor, and Bilqis realizes that it is up to her to intervene.
The intertwining stories of Bilqis, Samad, and Mumtaz offer a powerful and nuanced portrait of Pakistan in the modern era. Azhar Abidi's precise and elegant prose illuminates the struggle between a mother and son to reconcile their love for one another with their love for the places they call home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Abidi's second novel, set in the mid-1980s in his homeland of Pakistan and his adopted home of Australia, focuses on past traditions and familial expectations. Bilqis Ara Begum, widow and head of the imposing Khan clan in Karachi, Pakistan, struggles to comprehend why her son, Samad, defies her wishes of an arranged marriage and marries Kate, an Australian lawyer. Shunning the importance of his family name in Karachi, Samad and Kate opt to live in Australia, leading Bilqis to believe "traditions and etiquette that had flourished for generations would come to an end with her. It was akin to slow and gradual extinction." Although Bilqis remains ensconced in her beloved mausoleum of a family home, where everything is carefully preserved, Samad's decision sends ripples through her life, including her servant girl Mumtaz's unexpected future plans and Pakistan's own political and social turmoil. Abidi (Passarola Rising) evocatively depicts Pakistan's descent into brutality with protagonists who struggle to determine what is most sacred.
