The Geometry of God

Description

Amal: the practical sister who digs up the “diamond key” that unlocks the mystery of Pakicetus, a whale-dog creature who once swam the ancient seas that are now Pakistan. Mehwish: the blind younger sister, who moves with the sun and music inside her. Zahoor: their heretical grandfather, a scientist who loves variation and “vim zee” and his two granddaughters most of all. Noman: the young man who steps into a lecture hall, decides “their triangle needs a fourth point,” and changes all their lives. These are the four shifting chambers that make the heart of The Geometry of God. Through these vivid, contradictory, and original characters, Khan celebrates the complexities of familial and erotic love, the tug of curiosity and duty, the intersections of faith and longing. Her exuberant language draws from Urdu and Punjabi and invents one of its own for Mehwish, whose fractured English divides and slows and reveals.

Author Biography

Uzma Aslam Khan was born in Lahore and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of five novels, including Trespassing, The Geometry of God, Thinner than Skin, and, most recently, The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali. Trespassing was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize Eurasia 2003. The Geometry of God was voted one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2009 and won a bronze medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2010. Thinner than Skin was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2014. Her novels have been translated worldwide, including in Romania, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Norway, and Sweden.

Khan’s work has appeared in numerous periodicals and journals worldwide, including Granta, The Massachusetts Review, The Guardian, Nimrod International Journal, and Counterpunch.

Uzma Aslam Khan grew up in Karachi. She has taught English language and literature in the United States, Morocco, and in Pakistan. Currently she works for an NGO in Lahore, where she lives with her husband.