Kartography - Paperback

by Kamila Shamsie (Author)

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.

Front Jacket

Crib mates, raised together from birth, narrator Raheen and her best friend Karim dream each other's dreams, finish each other's sentences, speak in a language of anagrams. They share an idyllic childhood in upper-class Karachi with parents who are also best friends. The two couples were even once engaged to the opposite partner until they rematched in what they jokingly call "the fiancee swap." The night Karim's family migrates from Karachi to London, Raheen knows that "some of my tears were his tears and some of his tears were mine."
But as distance and adolescence split them apart, Karim takes refuge in the rationality of maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents' exchange. What she uncovers takes us back two decades to reveal a story not just of a family's turbulent history but that of a country -- and brings us forward to a grown-up Raheen and Karim poised between strained friendship and fated love.
A young writer of astonishing maturity and exhilarating style, Kamila Shamsie transports us to a world we have not seen in fiction - vibrant, violent, utterly contemporary Pakistan. But even as she takes us far away from the familiar she tells a story of passion and family secrets that rings universally true.

Back Jacket

[Shamsie] packs her story with the playful evidence of her high-flying intelligence. -- San Francisco Chronicle
Raised together from birth, Raheen and her best friend Karim dream each other's dreams and finish each other's sentences. They share an idyllic childhood in upper-class Karachi with parents who are also best friends, even once engaged to the other until they rematched in what they jokingly call "the fiancee swap." But when Karim's family migrates from Pakistan to London, distance and adolescence split the friends apart. Karim takes refuge in the rationality of maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents' exchange. She uncovers a story not just of a family's turbulent history but that of a country -- and finds herself poised between strained friendship and fated love with Karim.
"This 30-year-old has been described as a young Anita Desai, and her third book, about childhood, love, life and high society in Karachi during the turbulent 1990s is worth all the prepublication fuss." - Harper's Bazaar
Kamila Shamsie, author of two previous novels, has been twice shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize and named by the Orange Prize Futures as one of "21 writers for the 21st century. She lives in London and Karachi, and serves as Visiting Professor of English at Hamilton College.
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Author Biography

KAMILA SHAMSIE is the author of five novels: In the City by the Sea, Kartography (both shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Salt and Saffron, Broken Verses and Burnt Shadows, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and has been translated into more than 20 languages. She is a trustee of English PEN and Free Word, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Writers of 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.