No Funeral for Nazia by Taha Kehar - #bookreview #blogtour

 

Naureen rose from her wicker chair and sauntered through the cobbled tracks along the lawn - lika Nazia used to. As she approached the bougainvillea creepers, she smoothed the creases on her off-white cotton kurta, stopping to light a cigarette...

***

Nazia Sami is a celebrated author, but perhaps her greatest plot twist is yet to be produced. In her final days, she wields a pen one last time as she fills her diary with instructions for her sister, Naureen, and writes six letters to be delivered after her death. There is to be no funeral for Nazia. Instead, only six invitees are asked to attend a party, one of whom is a mystery guest. Over the course of an extraordinary evening, secrets are revealed, pasts reconsidered, and lives are forever changed. 

Perfect for fans of MOHSIN HAMID and KAMILA SHAMSIE, No Funeral for Nazia is a striking and inventive exploration of what death can mean for both the deceased and those left behind.

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There is some great fiction coming out of Neem Tree Press. I have read several of them, and they have been excellent. This book is no exception.

This book is set in Karachi, Pakistan, and the main character is Nazia. We never actually meet Nazia in the book as she has passed away but has left instructions with her sister, Nadeen that instead of a funeral they are to throw a party to celebrate her life for only six of her friends and family, plus one mystery guest. Each are promised a monetary inheritance to perform one last act in her name.

This sets the scene for this book which I really enjoyed reading. I particularly enjoyed the setting. The author's descriptions of the clothes and the food were excellent and were immersive. There is a helpful glossary at the back of the book with definitions of unfamiliar words.

The plot was a little different to anything I can recall reading in the past. It is quite hard to describe without creating spoilers, so I will just say that each of the characters reveals why their relationship with Nazia was problematic and this was done in an unusual way. However, the reader does get to understand their views of Nazia through this and to a lesser degree, of Nazia herself.

It is a story of love, betrayal and death. It considers the ways in which we see ourselves and also how others see us.

It was a short and interesting work of prose which I recommend.

ISBN: 978 1911107743

Publisher:  Neem Tree Press

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  272 (paperback)

About the Author:

Taha Kehar is a novelist, journalist and literary critic. A law graduate from SOAS, London, Kehar is the author of three novels, No Funeral for Nazia (Neem Tree Press, 2023), Typically Tanya (HarperCollins India, 2018) and Of Rift and Rivalry (Palimpsest Publishers, 2014). He is the co-editor of The Stained-Glass Window: Stories of the Pandemic from Pakistan. Kehar has served as the head of The Express Tribune’s Peshawar city pages and bi-monthly books page, and worked as an assistant editor on the op-ed desk at The News. Kehar’s essays, reviews and commentaries have been published in The News on Sunday, The Hindu and South Asia magazine and his short fiction has appeared in the Delhi-based quarterly The Equator Line, the biannual journal Pakistani Literature and the OUP anthology I’ll Find My Way. Two of his short stories appeared in an anthology titled The Banyan and Her Roots, which has been edited by the British writer Jad Adams. In 2016, he guest-edited an issue of The Equator Line, titled ‘Pakistan: After The Stereotypes’, that focused on new writing from Pakistan. Kehar curates Tales from Karachi: City of Words, an Instagram e-anthology that publishes flash fiction from and about Karachi. He recently compiled and edited the first print anthology of the initiative titled Tales from Karachi (Moringa, 2021). Based in Karachi, he teaches undergraduate media courses.

(book and media courtesy of The Write Reads)

(all opinions are my own)