Nadeem Aslam

Love is not consolation, it is light.' From the author of Maps for Lost Lovers comes a searing, exquisitely written novel set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11 - a story of war, of one family's losses, and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses. Jeo and Mikal, foster-brothers from a small Pakistani city, secretly enter Afghanistan: not to fight with the Taliban, but to help and care for wounded civilians. But it soon becomes apparent that good intentions can't keep them out of harm's way...From the wilds of Afghanistan to the heart of the family left behind - their blind father haunted for years by the death of his wife, by the mistakes he may have made in the name of Islam and nationhood, Jeo's steadfast wife and her superstitious mother - Aslam's prose takes us on an extraordinary journey.

In an unnamed town Jugnu and his lover Chanda have disappeared. Rumours abound in the close-knit Pakistani community, and then on a snow-covered January morning Chanda's brothers are arrested for murder. Telling the story of the next twelve months, Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses their pain in a language that is arrestingly poetic. 'This is a deeply pastoral novel, tied to the seasons and resonating with birdsong ...Like Aslam, I was heartbroken when the dense, dark tapestry was finished.' Independent on Sunday 'Despite the violence that lies at the heart of the novel, it is a celebration of love and life. Sights and sounds, smells and colours are not so much vivid backdrops for the narrative as structural, mood- and texture-enhancing parts of it ...This is that rare sort of book that gives a voice to those voices that are seldom heard.' Observer

Lara, una mujer rusa, llega a casa de Marcus Caldwell, un médico de origen inglés que vive en una antigua fábrica de perfumes. La existencia de Marcus se quebró tras una doble pérdida: la de su hija, Zameen, durante la invasión soviética y la de Qatrina, su mujer, a causa del régimen Talibán. Lara busca a su hermano, que quizás Zameen conociera, un soldado soviético desaparecido en la zona años atrás… Aslam se sirve de personajes inolvidables para mostrarnos el retrato del amor en tiempos de guerra y el de una región arrasada por el horror. Humanidad y lirismo confluyen en una historia descarnada que nos enseña que en realidad nadie es inocente.

When shots ring out on the Grand Trunk Road, Nargis' life begins to crumble around her. Her husband, Massud - a fellow architect - is caught in the crossfire and dies before she can confess to him her greatest secret. Under threat from a powerful military intelligence officer, who demands that she pardon her husband's American killer, Nargis fears that the truth about her past will soon be exposed. For weeks someone has been broadcasting people's secrets from the minarets of the city's mosques and, in a country where the accusation of blasphemy is a currency to be bartered, the mysterious broadcasts have struck fear in Christians and Muslims alike. Against this background of violence and fear, two outsiders - the young Christian woman Helen and the mysterious Imran from Kashmir - try to find an island of calm in which their love can grow. In his characteristically luminous prose, Nadeem Aslam reflects Pakistan's past and present in a single mirror - a story of corruption, resilience, and the hope that only love and the human spirit can offer.

In an unnamed town Jugnu and his lover Chanda have disappeared. Rumours abound in the close-knit Pakistani community, and then on a snow-covered January morning Chandas brothers are arrested for murder. Telling the story of the next twelve months, Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses their pain in a language that is arrestingly poetic.This is a deeply pastoral novel, tied to the seasons and resonating with birdsong . . . Like Aslam, I was heartbroken when the dense, dark tapestry was finished.Independent on SundayDespite the violence that lies at the heart of the novel, it is a celebration of love and life. Sights and sounds, smells and colours are not so much vivid backdrops for the narrative as structural, mood- and texture-enhancing parts of it . . . This is that rare sort of book that gives a voice to those voices that are seldom heard.Observer

Love is not consolation, it is light.From the author of Maps for Lost Lovers comes a searing, exquisitely written novel set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11 - a story of war, of one familys losses, and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses.Jeo and Mikal, foster-brothers from a small Pakistani city, secretly enter Afghanistan: not to fight with the Taliban, but to help and care for wounded civilians. But it soon becomes apparent that good intentions cant keep them out of harms way...From the wilds of Afghanistan to the heart of the family left behind - their blind father haunted for years by the death of his wife, by the mistakes he may have made in the name of Islam and nationhood, Jeos steadfast wife and her superstitious mother - Aslams prose takes us on an extraordinary journey.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2018When shots ring out on the Grand Trunk Road, Nargiss life begins to crumble around her. Her husband, Massud - a fellow architect - is caught in the crossfire and dies before she can confess to him her greatest secret. Under threat from a powerful military intelligence officer, who demands that she pardon her husbands American killer, Nargis fears that the truth about her past will soon be exposed. For weeks someone has been broadcasting peoples secrets from the minarets of the citys mosques and, in a country where the accusation of blasphemy is a currency to be bartered, the mysterious broadcasts have struck fear in Christians and Muslims alike. Against this background of violence and fear, two outsiders - the young Christian woman Helen and the mysterious Imran from Kashmir - try to find an island of calm in which their love can grow. In his characteristically luminous prose, Nadeem Aslam reflects Pakistans past and present in a single mirror - a story of corruption, resilience, and the hope that only love and the human spirit can offer.

This land and its killing epochs.Nadeem Aslams dazzling new novel takes place in modern-day Afghanistan. A Russian woman named Lara arrives at the house of Marcus Caldwell, an Englishman and widower living in an old perfume factory in the shadow of the Tora Bora mountains. It is possible that Marcuss daughter, Zameen, may have known Laras brother, a Soviet soldier who disappeared in the area many years previously. But like Marcuss wife, Zameen is dead; a victim of the age in which she was born. In the days that follow, further people will arrive at the house: David Town and James Palantine, two Americans who have spent much of their adult lives in the area, for their respective reasons; Dunia, a young Afghan teacher; and Casa, a radicalised young man intent on his own path.The stories and histories that unfold - interweaving and overlapping, and spanning nearly a quarter of a century - tell of the terrible afflictions that have plagued Afghanistan. A work of deepest humanity, The Wasted Vigil offers a timely portrait of this region, of love during war and conflict. At once angry, unflinching and memorably beautiful, it marks Nadeem Aslam as a world writer of major importance.

Aux abords de la ville de Zamana, lorsquune fusillade éclate entre des tueurs pakistanais et un espion américain, la vie de Nargis bascule. Pris dans les tirs croisés, Massud, son mari, architecte comme elle, epris de beaute et de justice, meurt avant quelle ait pu lui avouer son terrible secret. Menacee par un officier des services du renseignement qui la somme daccorder son pardon au meurtrier americain, Nargis craint que la verite sur son passe neclate au grand jour. Car depuis quelque temps, du haut des minarets de la ville, un inconnu devoile lintimite de certains habitants. Dans un pays ou les accusations de blaspheme sont monnaie courante, ces denonciations anonymes sement la terreur parmi la population. Nargis prend alors la fuite en compagnie de deux jeunes gens, Helen, la chretienne, et Imran, le mysterieux Cachemirien, a la recherche dun ilot de paix et damour, loin de la violence et de la folie des hommes. Par la magie de cette prose lumineuse qui caracterise le style de Nadeem Aslam, le passe et le present du Pakistan, marques par la corruption, lintolerance, mais aussi la resilience et lespoir, se refletent dans un meme miroir.Nadeem Aslam, ne au Pakistan en 1966, a quatorze ans lorsque sa famille, fuyant le regime du general Zia, sinstalle en Angleterre. Apres des etudes a luniversite de Manchester, il se consacre a lecriture. Le Sang et le Pardon est son cinquieme roman, en cours de publication dans une douzaine de pays ou son talent est largement reconnu. Son uvre est publiee aux Editions du Seuil. Traduit de langlais par Claude et Jean Demanuelli"Aslam est un maitre des mots et des images saisissantes. "The TimesClaude et Jean Demanuelli, agreges danglais, universitaires, prix Rhone-Alpes du livre 2007 pour la traduction et prix Baudelaire 2010, ont signe ensemble ou separement plus de soixante-dix traductions des uvres de Virginia Woolf, Henry James, John Updike, Richard Powers, Susan Minot, Zadie Smith, Muriel Spark ou Rose Tremain, mais aussi de celles de representants des litteratures indienne et pakistanaise anglophones, dont Arundhati Roy, Hari Kunzru, Shashi Tharoor, Nadeem Aslam ou Kiran Desai." Des pages dechirantes et revelatrices qui rappellent lunivers de Joseph Conrad. "Stephen King" Un livre traverse par une rage silencieuse et une beaute fulgurante. "The Economist" Malgre la souffrance et la cruaute quil decrit, Le Sang et le Pardon est un livre reconfortant grace a la foi dAslam dans lintegrite et le courage de ses personnages. "Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review

Une bourgade anonyme du Pakistan, à lombre de deux mosquées concurrentes, est secouée par deux événements simultanés : le meurtre du puissant juge Anwar, et la réapparition mystérieuse dun sac postal

Dans les mois qui suivent les attentats du 11 Septembre, deux jeunes gens, Jeo et son frère adoptif Mikal, lun étudiant en médecine, lautre rompu au maniement des armes, quittent leur bourgade du Nor

Aux abords de la ville de Zamana, lorsquune fusillade éclate entre des tueurs pakistanais et un espion américain, la vie de Nargis bascule. Pris dans les tirs croisés, Massud, son mari, architecte comme elle, epris de beaute et de justice, meurt avant quelle ait pu lui avouer son terrible secret. Menacee par un officier des services du renseignement qui la somme daccorder son pardon au meurtrier americain, Nargis craint que la verite sur son passe neclate au grand jour. Car depuis quelque temps, du haut des minarets de la ville, un inconnu devoile lintimite de certains habitants. Dans un pays ou les accusations de blaspheme sont monnaie courante, ces denonciations anonymes sement la terreur parmi la population. Nargis prend alors la fuite en compagnie de deux jeunes gens, Helen, la chretienne, et Imran, le mysterieux Cachemirien, a la recherche dun ilot de paix et damour, loin de la violence et de la folie des hommes. Par la magie de cette prose lumineuse qui caracterise le style de Nadeem Aslam, le passe et le present du Pakistan, marques par la corruption, lintolerance, mais aussi la resilience et lespoir, se refletent dans un meme miroir.Nadeem Aslam, ne au Pakistan en 1966, a quatorze ans lorsque sa famille, fuyant le regime du general Zia, sinstalle en Angleterre. Apres des etudes a luniversite de Manchester, il se consacre a lecriture. Le Sang et le Pardon est son cinquieme roman, en cours de publication dans une douzaine de pays ou son talent est largement reconnu. Son uvre est publiee aux Editions du Seuil. Traduit de langlais par Claude et Jean Demanuelli"Aslam est un maitre des mots et des images saisissantes. "The TimesClaude et Jean Demanuelli, agreges danglais, universitaires, prix Rhone-Alpes du livre 2007 pour la traduction et prix Baudelaire 2010, ont signe ensemble ou separement plus de soixante-dix traductions des uvres de Virginia Woolf, Henry James, John Updike, Richard Powers, Susan Minot, Zadie Smith, Muriel Spark ou Rose Tremain, mais aussi de celles de representants des litteratures indienne et pakistanaise anglophones, dont Arundhati Roy, Hari Kunzru, Shashi Tharoor, Nadeem Aslam ou Kiran Desai." Des pages dechirantes et revelatrices qui rappellent lunivers de Joseph Conrad. "Stephen King" Un livre traverse par une rage silencieuse et une beaute fulgurante. "The Economist" Malgre la souffrance et la cruaute quil decrit, Le Sang et le Pardon est un livre reconfortant grace a la foi dAslam dans lintegrite et le courage de ses personnages. "Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review

Une bourgade anonyme du Pakistan, à lombre de deux mosquées concurrentes, est secouée par deux événements simultanés : le meurtre du puissant juge Anwar, et la réapparition mystérieuse dun sac postal

Afghanistan, 2005, à lombre des monts de Tora Bora. Dans une maison aux murs ornés de fresques, aux plafonds recouverts de livres cloués, avec sa fabrique où lon distillait autrefois des parfums, le

Dans une ville anonyme du nord de lAngleterre, Chanda et son amant, lentomologiste Jugnu, ont disparu. De méchantes rumeurs agitent la communauté pakistanaise en butte à un enseignement de lislam per

Siamo in un'innominata citta inglese, ai cui margini vive una comunita pachistana. Kaukab vive da quarant'anni in Inghilterra, non parla la lingua e cerca di non avere contatti con i bianchi. Donna semplice e ignorante, di stretta fede musulmana, lacerata tra le regole morali delle proprie origini e la realta che la circonda, Kaukab rispecchia i conflitti che agitano l'intera comunita. Shamas, suo marito, e invece una sorta di libero pensatore, convinto che le due culture debbano e possano integrarsi. Suo malgrado s'innamora di Soraya, una giovane appena giunta dal Pakistan: un amore tragico, che lo rendera per sempre infelice. Un tentativo di descrivere il conflitto che nasce dalla precarieta dei sentimenti e dall'urto delle culture.

"Lara, una giovane russa, e in Afghanistan alla ricerca di notizie sul fratello, un veterano dell''invasione sovietica. Qual e la chiave della sua scomparsa? Forse Marcus Caldwell, un inglese che vive all''ombra delle montagne di Tora Bora. Forse David, formalmente una spia di Washington, nel paese dai tempi dell''invasione sovietica. Forse James, soldato delle forze speciali statunitensi. E Casa, il giovane talebano, sara lui a custodire il segreto? Cinque vite molto diverse tra loro si ritrovano all''intersezione di decenni d''invasioni, occupazioni e violenze. "

The highly acclaimed and Betty Trask Award winning debut from the author of Maps for Lost LoversA sack of letters lost in a train crash nineteen years previously has mysteriously reappeared, and the inhabitants of a small town in Pakistan are waiting anxiously to see what long buried secrets will come to light. Could the letters have any bearing on Judge Anwars murder?In one of the most exquisite fictional debuts of recent years, Nadeem Aslam creates an exotic and timeless world, but one whose traditional rituals of everyday life are played out against an ominous backdrop of faraway civil wars, assassinations, changing regimes, and religious tensions. Vivid and poignant.Evening StandardPoised and troubling.The TimesA real treat.Daily TelegraphOne of the most impressive first novels of recent years. Salman Rushdie

Afghanistan, 2005, à lombre des monts de Tora Bora. Dans une maison aux murs ornés de fresques, aux plafonds recouverts de livres cloués, avec sa fabrique où lon distillait autrefois des parfums, le

La desaparición de una jovenpareja de enamoradosperteneciente a la comunidadpakistaní de una ciudad delnorte de Inglaterra se convierteen un auténtico drama socialcuando los hermanos de ellason detenidos y acusados delasesinato de los novios. Unaencrucijada de pasiones,culturas y religiones en unahistoria de amor por encima delas diferencias.