Bapsi Sidhwa's First Novel: Back In Print and Introduced by Anita Desai

Minneapolis, MN (February 7, 2008): A classic work of feminist literature in South Asia, Bapsi Sidhwa's first novel The Pakistani Bride offers a prescient, provocative portrayal of the plight of Pakistani women in tribal society.

Originally published in 1983, The Pakistani Bride is a timely reissue of a story about the clash of cultures on the Indian subcontinent. Since late December 2007, the sudden death of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been mourned as a major setback for women's rights in Muslim societies. Despite the legacy Bhutto left for women, it remains that Pakistani law is so deeply entrenched with tribal and religious mores that Pakistan has one of the highest illiteracy rates for women in the world.

Wild, austere, and magnificently beautiful, the territories of northern Pakistan are a forbidding place, especially for women. Traveling alone from the isolated village where he was born, a tribal man takes an orphaned girl for his daughter and brings her to the glittering city of Lahore. Amid the pungent bazaars and crowded streets, he makes his fortune and sets up a home for the two of them. Yet, as the years pass, he grows nostalgic for life in the mountains. Impulsively, the man promises his daughter in marriage to a man of his tribe, but once she arrives in the mountains, the ancient customs of unquestioning obedience and backbreaking work make accepting her fate impossible.

As relevant today as when it was first published in 1983, this story of the conflict between adherence to tradition and the indomitable force of a woman's spirit can now resume its rightful place as one of Bapsi Sidhwa's most urgent and contemporary works of fiction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Karachi and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, Bapsi Sidhwa has been widely celebrated as the finest novelist produced by her country. She is the author of several novels, including The Crow Eaters, An American Brat, Cracking India, and, most recently, Water, which received the 2007 Premio Mondello in Italy. Among her many honors, Sidhwa has received the Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe/Harvard, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest honor in the arts. She lives in Houston.


TOUR DATES
New York City, New York
Monday, March 17, 2008 @ 7 PM
Bluestockings Books, 172 Allen Street
www.bluestockings.com

New York City, New York
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 @ 6:30 PM
Sponsored by Indo-American Arts Council
Aicon Gallery, 206 Fifth Avenue
RSVP @ 212-597-3685;
   

PRAISE FOR  BAPSI  SIDHWA’S  BOOKS

“A memorable book, one that confirms [Sidhwa's] reputation as Pakistan's finest English-language novelist.” New York Times Book Review

“The spirited daughter of an affluent Parsee family narrates the story of the cracking of India, as she witnesses Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Parsees, and Sikhs fight for their land and their lives.” London Review of Books

"[Sidhwa] has told a sweet and amusing tale filled with the worst atrocities imaginable; she has concocted a girlishly romantic love story which is driven by the most militant feminism; above all, she has turned her gaze upon the domestic comedy of a Pakistani family in the 1940s and somehow managed to evoke the great political upheavals of the age." Washington Post Book World

“One of the finest responses made to the horror of the division of the subcontinent.” Salman Rushdie, The New Yorker

“A historical tragedy comes alive, yielding insight into both the past and the subcontinent’s turbulent present.”  USA Today
  

PRAISE FOR WATER
2007 Winner of the Italian Premio Mondello for Foreign Authors

“Sidhwa's humor and compassion glow in Water.” Houston Chronicle

“This is a powerful and moving book that complements the film but also holds up quite well as an independent work.” Indian Express
 
  
PRAISE FOR AN AMERICAN BRAT
“Sidhwa’s writing is brisk and funny, her characters painted so vividly you can almost hear them bickering.” New York Times Book Review

“The reader’s reaction to it shares the symptoms of eating jalapeno peppers: wincing from the power of the substance and wiping tears. . . . Sidhwa’s plot is compelling. Her style is inimitable.” St. Paul Pioneer Press

“An American Brat is an exceptional novel . . . funny and memorable.” Los Angeles Times

“This sensitive, funny novel follows the adventures of a spirited 16-year-old Pakistani girl whose parents send her to school in the United States to avoid Muslim fundamentalism.” Houston Chronicle

“In An American Brat, Pakistani-born novelist Bapsi Sidhwa reveals with a humorous yet incisive eye the exhilarating freedom and profound sense of loss that make up the immigrant experience in America.” Washington Post

“Not just another immigrant’s tale, this chronicle of a strong, intensely alive young woman’s emotional growth is gripping.” Publishers Weekly

“Sidhwa’s portrayal of American culture through a Third World student’s eyes is humorous and affecting; her depiction of Pakistani culture being infiltrated by religious fundamentalism is illuminating.” Library Journal

 
PRAISE FOR THE CROWEATERS
“Funny, exotic, bawdy, ingenious, always entertaining.” People

“Throughout the novel, Ms. Sidhwa’s prose is boisterous and florid, and The Crow Eaters never fails to entertain.” New York Times Book Review

“Bapsi Sidhwa has written a picaresque, comic tale, garnished with 19th-Century authorial commentary.” Los Angeles Times

“An affectionate and amusing chronicle of one eccentric Indian family’s rise to prosperity during the early years of this century, when the British still ruled an empire on which the sun never set.” Washington Post

“This is a comic novel stuffed with rich, spicy characters. Sidhwa makes every step of Faredoon’s journey through time and culture a joy to read.” Library Journal, starred review
    

For more information, please contact Jessica Deutsch, Jessica_deutsch@milkweed.org, (612) 215-2563

The Pakistani Bride o A Novel by Bapsi Sidhwa o $14.00 Paperback
Publication Date: March 6, 2008 o ISBN: 978-1-57131-063-7 o 5 x 8, 272 pp