Aamina Ahmad
Author of
The Return of Faraz Ali (Riverhead, 2022)
Aamina Ahmad grew up in London and currently lives in Berkeley, CA. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and received a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University. Her short fiction has appeared in One Story, The Southern Review, The Normal School, The Missouri Review, Ecotone and the anthology, And the World Changed. Her play, The Dishonored, was produced by Kali and toured the UK in 2016. In addition to the Stegner, she has been a recipient of the Peden Prize, a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, and a Pushcart Prize.
Books BY aamina
The Return of Faraz Ali (Riverhead, 2022)
Sent back to his birthplace—Lahore’s notorious red-light district—to hush up the murder of a girl, a man finds himself in an unexpected reckoning with his past.
Not since childhood has Faraz returned to the Mohalla, in Lahore’s walled inner city, where women continue to pass down the art of courtesan from mother to daughter. But he still remembers the day he was abducted from the home he shared with his mother and sister there, at the direction of his powerful father, who wanted to give him a chance at a respectable life. Now Wajid, once more dictating his fate from afar, has sent Faraz back to Lahore, installing him as head of the Mohalla police station and charging him with a mission: to cover up the violent death of a young girl.
It should be a simple assignment to carry out in a marginalized community, but for the first time in his career, Faraz finds himself unable to follow orders. As the city assails him with a jumble of memories, he cannot stop asking questions or winding through the walled city’s labyrinthine alleyways chasing the secrets—his family’s and his own—that risk shattering his precariously constructed existence.
Profoundly intimate and propulsive, The Return of Faraz Ali is a spellbindingly assured first novel that poses a timeless question: Whom do we choose to protect, and at what price?
PRAISE
“This novel has everything a reader could ask for: a sizzling, noirlike plot; political intrigue juxtaposed with a rich intergenerational family saga; capacious, conflicted characters, including women who may be marginalized by society but are masters of their own narratives; and sublime sentences. A debut novelist, Ahmad manages this complexity seamlessly. A feat of storytelling not to be missed.” –Kirkus (starred review)
“The Return of Faraz Ali heralds the arrival of a strikingly accomplished and mature talent. Ahmad has managed to meld fast-paced, intelligent noir with a devastating portrait of the true costs of ambition and desire. Does not let you go, even after the end.” –Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King
“A rich and deeply moving novel about confronting histories both personal and political. Marvelous.” Yaa Gyasi, author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom
“Aamina Ahmad has done the impossible: made her literary debut with an enduring classic. Essential and compelling.” –Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son and Fortune Smiles
“A gripping read — everything beautifully evoked, from the alleys of the Old City to the atmosphere of corruption and secrets. Noir with a heart.”—Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
“Mesmerizing . That a novel so epic in scope can remain so intimate at heart is nothing short of astonishing.” –Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena