Kartography

Raheen and her best friend, Karim, share an idyllic childhood in upper-class Karachi. Their parents were even once engaged to each others' partners until they rematched in what they call "the fiancée swap." But as adolescence distances the friends, Karim takes refuge in maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents' exchange. What she uncovers reveals not just a family's but a country's turbulent history-and a grown-up Raheen and Karim are caught between strained friendship and fated love.

A love story with a family mystery at its heart, Kartography is a dazzling novel by a young writer of astonishing maturity and exhilarating style. Shamsie transports us to a world we have not often seen in fiction-vibrant, dangerous, sensuous Pakistan. But even as she takes us far from the familiar, her story of passion and family secrets rings universally true.

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PRAISE FOR KARTOGRAPHY  "[Shamsie] packs her story with the playful evidence of her highflying intelligence." —San Francisco Chronicle  "A gorgeous novel of perimeters and boundaries, of the regions-literal and figurative-in which we're comfortable moving about and those through which we'd rather not travel . . . Shamsie's wry humor infuses and quickens the narrative, leavening even the most serious scenes without detracting from their emotional weight." —Los Angeles Times  "E. M. Forster's famous plea--'only connect'--reverberates passionately throughout this forceful tale of childhood, love and the power of story-telling." —The Independent  "[In Kartography] words are used as vehicles conveying both emotions and intelligence, while at the same time - because the whole novel hinges on a secret that is hidden from the narrator—Shamsie knows that words aren't exactly everything, either." —The Guardian
"Deftly woven, provocative . . . Shamsie's blistering humor and ear for dialogue scorches through [a] whirl of whiskey and witticisms." —The Observer  "The descriptions of Karachi were so graphic I could feel the heat and the tension emanating from the pages of the book…Gripping and thought-provoking." —BBC.com  "A shimmering, quick-witted lament and love story…This is a complex novel, deftly executed and rich in emotional coloratura and wordplay." —Publishers Weekly, starred review  "[Kartography] leaves you feeling wistful and touches some place in your heart you didn't even know existed…Even though the story came to a magnificent end yet you wish [Shamsie] hadn't finished the book." —The Rumpus