Maps for Lost Lovers

Praise for Nadeem Aslam’s
    Maps For Lost Lovers
    “Brave. . . . Affecting. . . . Beautifully written . . . with passages of gorgeous sensuality.” —The Washington Post
    “Exquisite. . . . A work of almost suffocating beauty. . . . Like an epic written on a grain of rice, this is a novel about macro issues . . . written in almost microscopic detail. . . . The tale he has to tell rises above it all—the iridescent language making it possible to tell a story at whose heart there is so much darkness, so much longing.”
    —San Jose Mercury News
    “Provocative. . . . Bold. . . . Remarkable. . . . Rich and beautifully wrought. . . . Saturated with the mythic figures, the colors, and the scents of the subcontinent.” —The Boston Globe
    “Rich in detail, languid in cadence and iridescent with remarkable images. . . . This is that rare sort of book that gives a voice to those whose voices are seldom heard.” —The Observer (London)
    “Poetic, sensuous, precisely descriptive and lavishly allusive prose. . . . The prevailingly tragic atmosphere is shot through with luminous gleams of beauty, hope and light, making Maps for Lost Lovers not only an important and memorable achievement, but a book that is deeply satisfying to read.” —The Washington Times
    “An extraordinary work, echoing Rohinton Mistry and Salman Rushdie, but entirely, and unmistakably, the product of a wholly original mind.”
    —The Herald (London)
    “Aslam is a rich and vividly metaphorical writer. . . . This is an exquisitely sad novel, and it is worth . . . letting its spell take you over.”
    —Newsday
    “Haunting. . . . Tender. . . . Beautiful. . . . A poignant novel that will fascinate readers.” —Tampa Tribune
    “[A] remarkable achievement. . . . In this book, filled with stories of cruelty, injustice, bigotry and ignorance, love never steps out of the picture— it gleams at the edges of even the deepest wounds.”
    —The Guardian (London)
    “A novel of extraordinary quality. Islamists would be foolish to try and make political mischief out of it, while western readers would be foolish to ignore such a carefully crafted work.” —The Economist
    “Aslam’s prose soars, dazzling images abound. . . . Through the opulence of his writing and the darkness of his message Aslam quite brilliantly and shockingly seduces his reader. . . . Beautiful and only too real, this story born of romance and pain matches its artistry with courage. It is an important novel and also a very fine one.” —The Irish Times
    “Heartbreaking. . . . A must read. . . . The characters are so real the reader wants to speak with them. . . . Aslam is a very skilled and talented writer. He gives us a window into a community we don’t often see.”
    —The Decatur Daily
    “A superb achievement, a book in which every detail is nuanced, every piece of drama carefully choreographed, even minor characters carefully drawn.” — Colm Tóibín, author of The Master
    “It depicts an extraordinary panorama of life within a Muslim community. . . . Thoughtful, revealing, lushly written and painful, this timely book deserves the widest audience.”
    — David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

Nadeem Aslam
    Maps For Lost Lovers
    Nadeem Aslam is the author of a previous award-winning novel, Season of the Rainbirds (1993). He was born in Pakistan and now lives in England.

Also by Nadeem Aslam
    SEASON OF THE RAINBIRDS

for My Father,
who advised me at the outset, all those years ago,
to always write about love
and for
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
1911–1984
and
Abdur Rahman Chughtai
1897–1975
two masters who taught me, each in his own way,
about what else is worth loving

Acknowledgements
    During the long eleven years that I spent working on this novel I was grateful for the assistance I received from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Authors’ Foundation, and the Royal Literary Fund.
    While writing Maps for Lost Lovers, a book into which elements from numerous myths and legends of the world have been woven, I had, quite fittingly, guardian angels and guiding spirits of my own: Nicholas Pearson, Richard Beswick, Esther Whitby, Alexandra Pringle—thank you.
    I am grateful to Arif Rahman Chughtai—of the Chughtai Museum Trust in Lahore—for allowing me to use in this book the deer-and-cypress illustration from the dust-jacket of his father’s 1934 picture album Naqsh-e-Chughtai (Aivan-e-Ishaat Press, Lahore). The poem on page 277 is by Abid Tamimi. The verses on