Uzma Aslam Khan

Uzma Aslam Khan is a

Khan's first novel, The Story of Noble Rot, was published by Penguin Books India in 2001,^[5][6] and reissued by Rupa & Co. in 2009.^[7]

Her second novel, Trespassing, was published simultaneously by Flamingo/

Khan's third novel, The Geometry of God, was printed by Rupa & Co. India in 2008.^[10] It tells the story of Amal, who, as a child, accidentally discovers the fossil of the ear of the first whale – or 'dog-whale', as she calls it – while on a dig with her paleontologist grandfather. Despite the pressures imposed on her by her family, and by society, Amal goes on to become the first woman paleontologist to work with men in the mountains of Pakistan to look for fossils of ancient whales. The novel was praised for boldly charting new territory, and for its characters. Khan was becoming recognized for her frank exploration of sexuality, unique in Pakistani English-language writing.^[11]

Following its release in India, The Geometry of God was published in Spain, Italy, France, the US, the UK, and Pakistan. It won the Bronze Award for multicultural fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2010;^[12] was selected as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2009;^[13] and was a finalist of Foreword magazine's Best Books of 2009.^[14]

Khan's fourth novel, Thinner than Skin, was published in 2012 in the US, and subsequently in Canada, India, France, Turkey, UK, and Pakistan, and is slated for release in Egypt in 2021. It was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and won the inaugural KLF-Embassy of France Fiction Prize at the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) in February 2014. In a joint statement, the jury explained its choice for selecting Khan's book for "The eloquent and elegant way in which she reveals a myriad of different worlds with masterly restraint. The novel animates mountains, lakes, wind and fire and other elements of nature that echo the complex emotions of her characters. Through the carefully structured plot and the well-wrought patterns of recurring images and incidents, emerge insights about homeland, belonging and dislocation, central to contemporary Pakistani life."^[15]

Her fifth novel, The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali , set in the Andaman Islands preceding and during the Second World War, when the islands were a British penal colony seized by the Japanese,^[16] was released in India and Pakistan in 2019 and 2020, respectively.^[17] The novel received critical praise for its lyrical prose, and for being a "vibrant defiance of traditionally accepted histories ... (focusing instead) on marginalised and forgotten lives that history would rather ignore, creating a brilliant gash in the narrative structure historically manufactured."^[18] For its reconstruction of a time and place never before written in English-language fiction, it has been called a record in itself^[19] Author Pankaj Mishra has said: "The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali brilliantly excavates a forgotten past of several societies and honours its human complexity with a narrative of delicate precision. As affecting as it is intellectually powerful, the novel is a master lesson in the art of historical fiction" and author Mohammed Hanif, called it "A glorious novel about a forgotten place and a part of our history that we hardly ever talk about."^[2] The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali was shortlisted for the TATA Literature Live! Best Book of the Year Award for Fiction 2019.^[20] and won the 9th UBL Literary Awards 2020 Best English Fiction category.^[21] It also won the Karachi Literature Festival Getz-Pharma Fiction Prize 2021.^[22] The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali was released in Sweden in 2021, and in the US and UK in May and June 2022, respectively. It was a "New York Times"' "Best Historical Fiction 2022"^[23] and a New York Times' "Books for Summer 2022.".^[24] It won the 2023 Massachusetts Book Awards in Fiction.^[25]

Other writing

Khan's fiction has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including "Now Pray: Notes on a Separation" in

• The Story of Noble Rot (
  ISBN 9780141005676
• Trespassing (Flamingo/HarperCollins UK, 2003. Metropolitan/
  ISBN 9780007152773
• The Geometry of God (Clockroot Books/Interlink Publishing USA, 2009.
  ISBN 9781566567749
• Thinner than Skin (Clockroot Books/Interlink USA, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins India,
  ISBN 9781566569088
• The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali (Westland India, 2019)
  ISBN 9781646051649

• 2003 Trespassing was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, Eurasia region.^[2]
• 2009 The Geometry of God was selected as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books.^[2]
• 2009 The Geometry of God was a finalist of Foreword magazine's Best Books.^[2]
• 2010 The Geometry of God won the Bronze Award in the Independent Publisher Book Awards.^[2]
• 2012 Thinner Than Skin was longlisted for the
  Man Asian Literary Prize.^[2]
• 2014 Thinner Than Skin was longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.^[2]
• 2014 Thinner Than Skin won the inaugural KLF-Embassy of France Best Fiction Prize.^[2]
• 2019 The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali was shortlisted for the TATA Literature Live! Book of the Year Award.^[34]
• 2020 The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali won the 9th UBL Literary Awards 2020 Best English Fiction category.^[21]
• 2021 The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali won the Karachi Literature Festival-Getz-Pharma Fiction Prize.^[2]
• 2023 The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali was a 2022 Foreword Reviews' INDIES finalist in Historical Fiction.^[35]
• 2023 The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali won the 2023 Mass Book Award in Fiction.^[36]

References