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Top Note Heart Note Base Note: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 25 May 27A bracing, mordantly funny portrait of a young Pakistani woman who must confront dark truths about her marriage and her country
When Lina married Daniyal after a whirlwind courtship, a door opened to what she thought would be a freer way of a passionate and equal partnership with a husband to help ground her daydreaming. But when the two move back to Karachi at her request, an uneasy dynamic takes hold.
Lina is trying to relaunch her acting career on the set of a dysfunctional tv drama. She must triangulate the hilariously barbed counsel of the make-up artist with the imperious wisdom of the senior actress, and fight to be taken seriously. Meanwhile Daniyal descends into resentment and drug use—desperate for any thrill that will mask his disaffection—and Lina feels trapped inside their evenings in a feverish carousel of rooftop parties.
Then, a YouTube mullah invites Lina onto his podcast to debate him. It is at once an opportunity and a minefield. Lina is determined to stand up for her beliefs yet will not give up on rebuilding a life in Pakistan, still the home she remembers. As her outspokenness places her in increasing danger, her marriage tumbles ever closer to collapse.
In an unflinching voice, Mira Sethi delivers a darkly comic, piercing novel about a woman caught between herself and the life she wanted.
When Lina married Daniyal after a whirlwind courtship, a door opened to what she thought would be a freer way of a passionate and equal partnership with a husband to help ground her daydreaming. But when the two move back to Karachi at her request, an uneasy dynamic takes hold.
Lina is trying to relaunch her acting career on the set of a dysfunctional tv drama. She must triangulate the hilariously barbed counsel of the make-up artist with the imperious wisdom of the senior actress, and fight to be taken seriously. Meanwhile Daniyal descends into resentment and drug use—desperate for any thrill that will mask his disaffection—and Lina feels trapped inside their evenings in a feverish carousel of rooftop parties.
Then, a YouTube mullah invites Lina onto his podcast to debate him. It is at once an opportunity and a minefield. Lina is determined to stand up for her beliefs yet will not give up on rebuilding a life in Pakistan, still the home she remembers. As her outspokenness places her in increasing danger, her marriage tumbles ever closer to collapse.
In an unflinching voice, Mira Sethi delivers a darkly comic, piercing novel about a woman caught between herself and the life she wanted.
272 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication May 25, 2027
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