Six Metres of Pavement

by Farzana Doctor

Ismail Boxwala made the worst mistake of his life one summer morning twenty years ago: he forgot his baby daughter in the back seat of his car. After his daughter's tragic death, he struggles to continue living. A divorce, years of heavy drinking, and sex with strangers only leave him more alone and isolated.

But Ismail's story begins to change after he reluctantly befriends two women: Fatima, a young queer activist kicked out of her parents' home; and Celia, his grieving Portuguese-Canadian neighbour who lives just six metres away. A slow-simmering romance develops between Ismail and Celia. Meanwhile, dangers lead Fatima to his doorstep. Each makes complicated demands of him, ones he is uncertain he can meet.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Queer, LGBT, Contemporary, Adult, Book Club

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

I'm the author of Stealing Nasreen (Inanna 2007) and Six Metres of Pavement (Dundurn, 2011), All Inclusive (Dundurn, 2015) and Seven (2020).

My poetry collection, You Still Look The Same, will be released in 2022.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cross-posted at Outlaw Reviews and at Shelf Inflicted

I started reading this book on the eve of my 20th wedding anniversary. It was fun getting immersed in other people’s lives and problems rather than spending time pondering whether human beings are meant to spend more than 20 years together.

Ismail Boxwala is devastated by the accidental death of his baby daughter, burying his sorrow in alcohol and casual sexual encounters. His growing friendship with a grieving Portuguese widow and a homeless queer girl shifts his focus away from himself and onto helping others through their difficulties. Ismail gradually learns to process his grief and find some inner peace. This story takes place in Toronto and features a cast of unique, engaging and diverse characters going through significant changes in their lives. The pace is gentle, and while there is some drama, it shies away from intensely emotional interactions and upsetting situations. Instead, it shows how unlikely people can intersect and through friendship and understanding they can find themselves and discover meaning in their lives.

Ismail, Celia and Fatima are such well-drawn characters that they can be your friends, neighbors, or relatives. Their struggles and joys feel authentic. It was hard for me to leave them when the book ended.

This is a big-hearted, comforting and hopeful story that explores grief, aging, loneliness, rejection, identity, culture and traditions, as well as the diversity and fluidity of modern families.

Highly recommended.

[Jsiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice enough story, really sad but also not too dark and quite pleasant. Enjoyed all the Toronto references.

[RKanimalkingdom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so although I love this book, I still cringed when I read 2 50 year old falling in love and "getting it on". I know 50 is the new 30 but if we go by that logic then 20 is the new newborn which is what I was when I read it. :P

However, this book was spectacular. Even the romance.

A man with a past that haunts him, a widow haunted by her dead husband, and a young Muslim girl who is kicked out by her parents because she is queer.

Taking place in my very own Toronto, Ontario, Six meters of Pavement tackles the issue of second chances and moving on. It deals in a very realistic way the actions of others affects a person's mental health and how sometimes, moving on just means letting someone in.

Ismail is an engineer in his 50's who is haunted by the death of his daughter. His daughter whom he accidentally left in the car causing her to die of heat. It was a mistake caused by the toll of parenthood, work, and lack of sleep. Mistakes were made; his costed his daughter's life and it haunts him. Drinking, divorce, distancing from others, one-night stands, loneliness,crippling guilt, panic attacks, depression, and seizures are battles Ismail deals with on a daily basis. Incredibly lonely yet resolving that this is his punishment Ismail goes through life essentially waiting for nothing. Until he meets his neighbour and a young friend.

Celia is a recently widowed women who also lost her mother in the same time frame. Mourning for 2 people whilst feeling unwanted in her daughter's home, Celia goes through life by staring out the window. One day her eyes catch her neighbour, Ismail and a silent neighbor watch goes on between the two. In the time she spends mourning she comes to realize secrets her husband kept from her and comes to the realization that she has never ever been independent. Moving from dependency on her parents to her husband to her daughter, Celia is frustrated by her easy ability to let people decide things for her.

Fatima, a young 19 year old girl, who is in premed at the university meets Ismail at a creative writing course. Young, politically informed and active, opinionated, happy, and proudly queer Fatima comes as a shock to Ismail because he realizes that she would be the same age as his deceased daughter had she lived. What starts as simple polite conversation (at least on his side) eventually blooms into a friendship. It is through Fatima that Ismail gets the opportunity to be a father again. He learns new things a.k.a gets hip with the times through Fatima and helps try to rebuild the bridge between Fatima and her parents.

These 3 people are mostly haunted by the views of society. Rumors, gossip, grapevine communication, expectations, etc are more malicious then they appear and hurt. It's something that they struggle with, Ismail especially, but step by step they became able to open up and talk to one another. They help each other and support one another. It's through this process that they essentially become a family. Fragmented no doubt but flowers still grow within the cracks of pavement.

Doctor did a fantastic job with this book. Humorous yet crippling. She managed to plunge a knife into right into my heart. Her research and background in mental health really shone through in this novel. Depicting what it's really like to be haunted by your past. Depicting what it's really like to lose someone close to you, even when you realize all the things they did behind your back. Depicting what it's like to grow up in a family that wants the best for you so badly that it ends up suffocating you.

I must read for all.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought and started reading Farzana Doctor’s second novel Six Metres of Pavement with specific and high expectations: not only has it just been shortlisted for the 2012 Toronto Book award, it was named one of Now Magazine’s top ten books of 2011 and won in the category of lesbian fiction at the most recent Lambda Literary awards. Six Metres of Pavement also won a 2011 Rainbow award. That’s a lot of praise, especially for only a second-time novelist. This kind of positive feedback creates high expectations that can sometimes be hard to live up to. Do I think the novel deserves the praise it’s been garnering? Absolutely. It’s a very moving novel that is ultimately about the power of chosen families, which is something that’s particularly poignant for queers. Do I think this novel was the right choice for a lesbian fiction category, particularly for the Lambda? No...

See the rest of my review at my blog: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wor...

[Faith Reidenbach · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped to recommend this novel to my lesbian fiction book group, but I can't. For one thing, it is glacially slow. For another, almost nothing happens that isn't described on the book's back cover. And the Southeast Asian queer activist mentioned on the back cover isn't a well-realized character; we get to know her mainly from what her parents and the main character say or think about her. This book won a Lammy because it's neatly written, not because it has a queer sensibility.

Doctor is a psychotherapist by training, and it shows. She has a fine eye for details and patience for the fact that people's stories loop backward and forward in time. I enjoyed the 2 characters she fleshed out. But a novel needs more than that. More characters and more story.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever found yourself out in public - on a bus or subway, at a park or in the waiting room of a doctors office - and you're watching strangers and wondering to yourself; what's their story? Well this is their story.

I loved Six Metres of Pavement. Farzana Doctor is an incredibly gentle and funny storyteller with a wonderful eye for small details of life. The story that unfolds (which you're better off not knowing about in advance) is compelling, more than enough to keep you engaged and entertained. But the characters are the heart of the novel.

They become your friends, and as they fumble around trying to figure out how to survive in a world that never seems to make room for their complicated painful histories, you want to know how they do it, you laugh when they bump up against each other and themselves, and you root for them as if rooting for your own future happiness. They are the kind of characters you miss when you finish the novel.

The ways that characters sexual, cultural, and ethnic identities intersect, sometimes clashing and sometimes meshing is often laugh out loud hilarious. Their individual struggles include some unimaginable horrors, but still feel familiar. These may not be things that have happened in your own life, but it's the stuff of life that you know happens, that you've been touched by.

In some ways Six Metres of Pavement is a perfectly Toronto novel. And I should admit that I read it while away from Toronto, which probably made me love it all the more. But because Toronto is the city it is, the setting, the story, and the characters end up being both from and of countries and times far beyond the shores of Lake Ontario. It's hard to imagine anyone who won't find a friend in this book.

Doctor works a bit of magic of her own in the way these seemingly disparate characters end up in each other's lives, and in imagining a possibility of life where our connections to others - strangers, family, lovers, and the occasional co-dependent hook-up - end up being the thing that makes life worth living.

Read this book.

[Sil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six Metres of Pavement is a wonderful tale set in Toronto. You will root for the protagonists just like I did, and will hope that they can find what they need from themselves and each other. Farzana Doctor skillfully writes a very tender story of finally getting out of an unimaginable place. A page-turner right to the very end.

[Aban (Aby) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read about this book in the Globe and Mail and the subject matter sounded interesting: an (East) Indian man, living with the consequences of accidentally killing his baby daughter, finally finds himself able to move on with his life by building new relationships. Whilst the story line held my interest, I found the writing to be weak. This is not a book I will be recommending to my friends.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I remember... Super book, great ending.
"That October, Fatima brought home a Polaroid camera she found at a yard sale. Wanting to test it out, she made everyone pose for her, in various groupings.
'I've got lots of film, come on you guys!' she instructed. 'Wait, first the two of you,' she said, pointing to Ashton and Sonia. Then she waved in Celia and Ismail.
While Ismail crowded in with the others, he tried to calculate how many photos she'd have to take if she shot every combination. He mentally listed:
Ismael and Celia
Ismael and Fatima
Fatima and Sonia Gandhi
Sonia Gandhi and Ashton...
And then, side-tracked by the commotion, he gave up his calculations.
At the end of the photo shoot, he took a picture of Fatima and Celia. Fatima pulled out the snapshot, blew on it, the image gradually forming, filling the white space. She pressed the photo into his palm with a shy smile. He took it to work, and tacked it up on his cubicle wall.
His worries about Celia moving out on her own turned out to be unfounded. She seemed happier, and they continued seeing one another as often as before. Sonia Gandhi, too, was a constant visitor at 82 Lochrie, as the girls continued to date that autumn.
Ismael reflected on how, just a year earlier, his house had been an empty shell. Now, it overflowed with noise and women. They filled the silence with their voices, crowded the bathroom counter with feminine beauty products, ate all the food in his fridge.
Sometimes, the old memories were there too, extra guests in an already full house. He'd shut his eyes and follow their whispers, hear their sad regrets, visiting with Zubi and Rehana and remembering times he'd rather forget. Like quicksand, the memories would pull him deep into his past, his body sinking, his head about to go under. Then, from down the hall, he'd hear an odd ringtone and be distracted by a young woman talking too loudly on her cellphone. He'd eavesdrop on her chatter, vicariously entering the world of a twenty-year-old. He'd barely understand most of what she'd be talking about, but nevertheless, her voice would rescue him from the mud.
When he'd open his eyes again, he might see before him a woman with flowers in her eyes. They'd walk outside, hands entwined, noticing drapes fluttering, or lying still. They might survey the little houses and shops of Little Portugal, taking in the overgrown autumn gardens, the stately churches whose bells called out each and every Sunday, without fail. They'd stroll past generations of women and girls walking home together with their groceries. They'd greet house-proud older men, hoses in hand, washing their front walks.
Just like all the changes they'd witnessed from within 82 Lochrie, Ismael and Celia would know that everything outside and around them was in motion, too. With each moment, something was changing, stretching, growing. Lives were beginning, and others were ending. The movement might be minute, perhaps imperceptible to the naked eye, but certainly, definitely, real."

This book is simple and yet brilliant. It starts off with the story that happened so long ago: a father forgets his 18 month old in the back seat of his car and she dies. But it is a memory, nothing more. What can be more evocative than this? Why would the story not concern that? But now Ismail is taking a creative writing course (!) and he blurts out in an introduction exercise that he plans to write about his daughter. Hmmmm. But it's way more than that one story trapped in time. It's also about new love, acceptance, lesbians and life, different cultures colliding, growth, writing as healing, young people, how you build a family our of nothing, becoming whole. It is not at all simple. It is complex and nuanced. It is inspiring. And it's a feel good story. Nothing happened and yet so much happened.

Always endings now:
"Just like the changes they'd witnessed from within 82 Lochrie, Ismail and Celia would know that everything outside and around them was in motion, too. With each moment, something was changing, stretching, growing. Lives were beginning, and others were ending. The movement might be minute, perhaps imperceptible to the naked eye, but certainly, definitely, real."

But here's where I am really reminded of my parents' reaction. When Fatima tells her parents she's queer, they respond in similar ways to the day I came out to my parents. I will never forget. There is a story there. Why haven't I written that story?
"'Oh, Fatima, why did you have to do this? Are you trying to punish us?' Shelina pulled an embroidered hankie from out of her sleeve and wiped her nose."

Fatima wants to interview her parents for her story, but they are closed. Much like my own experience, and the similarities continue.
"'Yeah, you're right, she said, sighing. 'Looks like I'll need to do that [imagine her parents' story]. I sort of wanted to know more about them. Not just for the story, you know? I really wanted to know more about their lives.' She fluttered her eyelashes down and stared at her lap."

Doctor has some very perceptive moments, beautifully described in this very simple (in the sense of being clear, unsullied by hyperbole) novel. His incomplete healing is both physical and emotional.
"Ismail received a souvenir that day; the gash on his chest created a scar. The scar never healed properly, and became what's called a keloid. It's a shiny, pink undergrowth of skin, a dermatological overreaction. A complicated, incomplete healing."

Very good description of panic.
"That was his first panic attack. A sufferer never forgets the first, for the first informs of all the rest that could come in the future. And that fear fuels the rest that do come. And so on."

Very great observation. I have my own bad memories, not like Ismail, but they sometimes feel real. Her personification of Ismail's past moves it from telling to showing. Very good.
"Bad memories are like relatives who visit and overstay their welcome. Soon your irritation builds when night after night, you return home to find them lounging on your couch, or raiding the refrigerator. And bad memories can be a noisy lot, keeping you up late at night with their endless chatter. Sometimes, you rouse at night to find one of them standing next to your bed, pillow in hand, about to smother you to death."

Thus it BEGINS.
"Years ago, long before Ismail Boxwala came to this country, a school friend told him that the only way to survive misfortune is to stay in motion. The friend was in a philosophical mood induced by too many beers and a recent heartbreak and imparted these words: if the boy never moves, if the limbs are not exercised, sadness will turn the blood and lymph stagnant. Regret will cause the heart to grow weak, infection will creep in, and a person will does a slow, painful death.
Ismail Boxwala had no courage for this sort of dying.
After the tragedy that befell him, he remembered his friend's words. ..."

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Six Metres of Pavement” can be taken as a cautionary tale illuminating the reality that one moment of distraction can have a lifetime of consequences. At the same time, it asserts that a second chance will come along if we are aware enough to see it and brave enough to embrace it.

Twenty years ago, Ismail Boxwala fell victim to that one costly moment – forgetting that his infant daughter is in the back seat of his car on a hot summer day. Her death tears apart his marriage and leads him to a shallow existence defined by heavy drink to drown his regrets.

But two women come into Ismail’s life to give him his second chance. Fatima, a young queer activist rejected by her parents, comes under his somewhat unwilling protection and gives him purpose. Celia, a Portuguese widow who comes to live with her daughter six metres across the street from Ismail, offers him a second chance at love.

As you read “Six Metres of Pavement”, you will recognize the oblique reference to the concept of “six degrees of separation”. Farzana Doctor allows you to read as little or as much as you like into that parallel.

All in all, an interesting read with compelling characters and a passionate endorsement of the belief that we should not give up hope when our lives come unravelled.

[Ankur · Rating 5 out of 5]

You must read this book.

It was absolutely amazing. I loved all of the characters, and the story is one that is going to stay with me for a long time. So many quotable lines in this one, and bonus, it takes place in Toronto. Of all the "Toronto" books I've ever read, this one felt the most real. The descriptions of various locales was very vivid and evoked many fond memories for me. I saw the younger version of myself in some of the younger characters in this book, ha, which made for quite a few laughs as well. This was definitely one of my favourites, and I'll definitely be putting this one in my to re-read pile.

[Sylvia McNicoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ismail Boxwala is the guy you read about in the paper and wonder how he can live with himself. Fatima is the girl you ponder over, how can she cope with being gay in a religion and culture that forbids it, Celia is a woman you feel sorry for, husband drops dead leaving her in deep debt. Farzana Doctor shows us how these three characters can survive and even move forward in their lives...together. The strong Toronto setting provides a great backdrop for a tender tale of redemption.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such a marvelous and lovely book, a description would be inadequate. I must think more about it and why I consider it underated, underread, underappreciated and so little known to so many it is hard to believe. She is master storyteller; her characters fully believable in a most unfamiliar location...another mystery to me. It created in my head a visual, three dimensional background for every moment on every page. I am not sure how to relate the story it tells or how she told it. Just read it and tell me what you think...I would love to hear your thoughts.

[Rainey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book.

This came recommended by my favourite book web site BookRiot.com, from an article called - 5 GREAT CANADIAN MUSLIM BOOKS by Casey Stepaniuk.

http://bookriot.com/2017/02/09/five-g...

It was so nice to read a book about love after 50. The characters were well developed, and it was nice to learn about different cultures. It was also set in my hometown in an area I am familiar with so that was nice as well.

How the issues of moving on and forgiving oneself from past mistakes, acceptance, forgiveness and unusual friendships were handled deftly.

[Mary Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good read - Ismail and Celia gradually getting to know each other, crossing the boundaries of their own losses and tragedies to sharing with each other. Moving on into new mysteries. Set in downtown neighbourhoods of Toronto, the city, as well as the characters, spring to life on the pages of this intriguing and moving novel.

[Mihaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written, a lot of cliches used. I read it because I wanted to test the "lending "ebook functions from myy local library and this book was available. I do not know why I finished it. I guess I wanted to know"what happenss next" and in that alone the book had some merit.

[Jenny Fosket · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Slow at first but I got drawn into the characters and rooted for their lives and chosen families to work out.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the negative side, I really found the basic premise of the story (the baby dying in the hot car) to be horribly gruesome and I had a lot of difficulty reading about it. I initially thought that I would not continue reading it but then I did persevere.

On the positive side, I enjoyed reading about the two main characters, Ismail and Celia and their developing relationship. They were both very well portrayed and were interesting characters. I did not think that Fatima’s character was portrayed with as much depth but that could have been because she was so young.

I found the book a little drawn out but the redemption and the hope that it offered by the end of the story was very good.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is very engaging, very gentle, and very Canadian in the best use of that word. The book is as much (or more) character- than plot-driven, however that is a plus. I think the Doctor must be an astute and empathetic observer of people and of character. The characters who populate her book read real and sympathetic. Doctor also gives a rich and real-reading look at relationships - family, love, friendships, marriage. I was very engaged in the lives of these characters and their interactions and wanted to keep reading to see how it would all turn out.

Overall, a solid read. I will look up other books by this author.

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very strong depiction of flawed characters and what brings people together.

The main character has gone thorugh a horrifc event when he forgets his young daughter in the back of his car and she dies of heat stroke.

The widow across the street has had life altering experience when her husband suddenly dies and she discovers that he has gotten them hopelessly into debt and she has to move in with her daughter

the young girl is disowned by her parents when they discover she has been living a secret life as a lesbian.

despite their tragic circumstances they are thorwn together and discover that love and understanding are what really make a family

[Eric Leeson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A touching tale. I did enjoy the simplicity of the book, but it was hard to finish, no suspense and to be honest I kept waiting for the Ismail to be arrested for what he had done. I understand that he made a mistake and his suffering is understandable, but I could not believe he did not receive a court mandated punishment. The most touching a brilliant part of the story was when he imagined what his baby had gone through and the effect it had on him. Terrible that any baby is forgotten in a car. The rest of the story was fine, just did not catch my interest as much.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll give this book a solid 2.5. There were parts of the story I really liked. Namely the relationship between Ismail and Celia. Unfortunately the story dragged. I flipped through many pages, chapters even, just skimming. It felt like a few sub stories stuffed into one book, none of them thoroughly or interestingly enough developed.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excruciatingly slow burn in the first half of the book and a handful of instances of awkward prose that I found distracting. Ultimately though, the story was engaging (particularly in the last 100 or so pages) and I ended up very invested in all three of the main characters.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely book about ordinary people, one of them dealing with the lingering effects of tragedy. Some might say the ending was a little too neat and tidy, but sometimes you just want a book where good characters going through tough times have tings turn out OK in the end.

[Phil Dwyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luminous story about what separates us (sexuality, religion, age, culture, gender) and what brings us together (love, compassion, empathy, kindness). These characters will stay with me for a long time.

[Venkitesh Mathakode · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ismail forgot her baby daughter in his car which turned out to be a tragic accident and it shattered his family. His wife left him and all short lived relationship doesn't worked out for him... A one time read

[Waheed Rabbani · Rating 5 out of 5]

At writers’ conferences, it is often commented that it is riskier to set a novel in a Canadian city, than in a foreign locale say Delhi. The main reason being offered is that the plot may not be appealing to American readers. However, Farzana Doctor’s second novel, Six Metres of Pavement, set in the Little Portugal district and other environs of Toronto, compares admirably with those set in the streets of a cosmopolitan city say in the UK. The themes of the novel such as, love, tragedy, family and multi-cultural relationships, sexual orientation, addiction, and redemption are its main appeal, while the setting in an ethnic neighbourhood adds to their flavour. These are all told by Farzana in her unique voice, and by presenting the local viewpoints, she voids the “MacDonaldification” of the writing as one reviewer has put it.

The book starts not only with an intriguing title and the cover, but also the captivating image of Ismail Boxwala, an Indian immigrant and a municipal engineer, who is attempting to overcome a twenty-year old tragedy by ‘staying in motion,’ which among the normal daily activities involves a lot of elbow-bending at the local tavern. Farzana gradually reveals that heartbreaking event, masterfully, in snippets of flashbacks while moving the story-line forward and maintaining our concentration. We learn of the accidental death of his nearly two-year old daughter, who he’d inadvertently left in the back seat of his parked car on a hot summer morning. The child died leaving Ismail with immense grief, remorse and nightmarish images that haunt him virtually to the end of the novel. There are other repercussions of the loss. Some of these such as deteriorating job-performance, which Ismail is barely able to surmount, while the other major one, erectile dysfunction, he is not—at least temporarily. While his wife, Rehana, absolves him for the ‘worst mistake of his life’ when she tells him while leaving the cemetery, ‘I forgive you ...’ but she does not for his ED problem. After dragging him to several clinics, she—somewhat uncharacteristically for an Indian woman—walks out on him. This and other unexpected non-clichéd characterizations, such as Celia Sousa’s, the 50-year old Portuguese widow, makes the novel that much more interesting.

The book’s back cover blurb mentions two women who initiate changes in Ismail’s life. Yet in the opinion of this reviewer, there is a third woman, his beer-drinking buddy and more, Daphne, who has a profound influence on his fate. It is she who first helps him to pacify his recovered sexual vigour—following his divorce—and later almost cures his alcoholism by taking him to AA meetings. Subsequently, she is the one who pesters him to take the creative writing course. Nevertheless she disappears from his life after confessing her lesbianism.

At the creative writing classes, Ismail befriends, Fatima, an undergraduate bisexual student, who is facing difficulties having her parents accepts her sexuality and has been turfed out of their home. Although Ismail is not sexually attracted to Fatima—she’s just about the age his deceased daughter would have been—he helps her along, and the point that it is due to his latent love for his daughter is well made. Through Fatima he learns not only the meaning of queer, but also what it is like to be a destitute and homeless person. While Ismail does have some family and community friends in Toronto, who attempt to assist him in their own ways in his difficult time, it is really his friendship with Fatima and the writing school assignments that help him slay his internal daemons. He finally has the tears of grief pour out of him.

Meanwhile, although Ismail had been introduced to Celia—his neighbour six metres of pavement across the road—some time ago and had run into her occasionally, he does not initiate contact with her. It is again she who atypically connects with him. She had also been suffering emotionally in her widowhood and had been imagining visits by her deceased husband. We learn that while she was secretly spying on Ismail through the slits in the curtains from her bedroom windows, which while not unusual in those close nit communities, her further actions catch us unaware.

While the ending of the novel might be somewhat like a ‘fairytale,’ as one reviewer put it, it is, nevertheless, wonderfully written in a congenial style and one that will ‘tug at the heartstrings’ that another reviewer wrote.

Farzana has won much acclaim for this novel. She was awarded the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Grant for Emerging Gay Writers, and this book was also nominated for an entry to the long list for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize. It is said that books on the short list for this prestigious award are already winners—at the bookstores—and the same can be said for a novel on the nomination list.

It should not be long before we would see Farzana’s novels up on the bestseller lists, and with the popularity of the Bollywood movies dramatized on the celluloid screen as well.



Waheed Rabbani is the author of “Doctor Margaret’s Sea Chest,” the Book I of his “The Azadi Trilogy.”

[Meryam · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting, not bad. the second half of the novel was far more interesting and fast paced than the first.

[Arlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow moving. Largely about self forgiveness.

[Joan Duke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read. Took too long to develop the main relationship. Got bored waiting for it to happen.