The Story of Noble Rot

by Uzma Aslam Khan

It is the careless abandon of a wine-satiated afternoon that first brings together the imperious Mrs. Masood and the humble carpenter's wife, Malika. As she observes the wealthy woman whose family is responsible for all her troubles, a plan takes shape in Malika's mind to recover the money Mrs. Masood owes her husband, and rescue her son from slow death in Mr. Masood's carpet factory. Unknown to both women, the moment marks the beginning of relationship that is to change their lives forever. Vividly narrated and full of funny yet complex dilemmas, this is a novel about the sweetness of life and about how we inexorably drive ourselves to our own doom. It marks the debut of a gifted storyteller from Pakistan.

Genres: Fiction, Asian Literature

217 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Uzma Aslam Khan is the prize-winning author of five novels published worldwide. These include Trespassing, translated in 18 languages and recipient of a Commonwealth Prize nomination; The Geometry of God, a Kirkus Reviews' Best Book of 2009; Thinner Than Skin, nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and winner of the French Embassy Prize for Best Fiction at the Karachi Literature Festival 2014. Her work has twice won a Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Prize, and appeared in Granta, The Massachusetts Review, Australian Book Review, Nimrod, AGNI, Calyx, and Guardian UK, among many other periodicals.

Khan’s fifth novel, The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali, is set in the British penal settlement of the Andaman Islands during the 1930s, through the Japanese occupation during World War II. The book, 27 years in the making, writes into being the stories of those caught in the vortex of history, yet written out of it. The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali won the Karachi Literature Festival-Getz Pharma Fiction Prize and the UBL Literary Awards English Language Fiction category in Pakistan. In India, it was shortlisted for the TATA Literature Live! Best Book of the Year, Fiction. Released in the US in 2022, The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali was a New York Times' "Best Historical Fiction 2022" as well as a New York Times' "Books for Summer 2022." In 2023, it won the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction.

See:
https://www.massbook.org/mass-book-aw...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/bo...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/bo...

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/t...

Reviews

[Rashad Raoufi · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was such a good book, it captures the hidden moral decay of muslim society.

[Frans V J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book hits closer to home than I thought, especially if you live in a third world country. A story of a maid from lower-middle class society witnessing her master's wife from the upper class spiraling into corruption, in order to get justice from the upper class, she resorts to blackmail; which is pretty bold of her considering she wants to unshackle from how lower society thinks of women, she does everything for her family and the men gets all the credit. It is written so good, you will understand how the master's wife spiral into madness due to how she was from lower class too before wedded, and only seen as an object (her body).

I think its amazing how you will get confused on "why Noble Rot?" and in the end it will all get to you, the Noble Rot are the women, how the fresh grape are already sweet—and yet the fungus won't stop moulding onto it and sucks all the sweetness of the grape.

I think the reason why this book has a very low rating is because some readers are unfamiliar with the terms, the boom is from Pakistan and has references regarding muslim rules, the prose can get confusing. I need to look over the terms too.

[sherry😛 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a very fun read id say the plote was quite interesting although theres a lot of chatacter and i often got them mixed up every once in awhile i like it though. Theres a few weird part honestly

[Mamta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read...it was years ago that I read this yet its words remain fresh as ever in my mind. Such an intricately woven tale.

[Tazeen · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could have given it negative stars, I would have definitely done that. I finished the book wondering, can it get any worse ... guess what? It did get worse as it progressed.