In a deeply personal investigation, award-winning journalist Sadiya Ansari takes us across three continents and back a century as she seeks the truth behind a family secret. Why did her grandmother Tahira abandon her seven children to follow a man from Karachi to a tiny village in Punjab? And though she eventually left him, Tahira remained estranged from her children for nearly two decades. Who was she in those years when she was no longer a wife or mother? For Sadiya herself, uninterested in marriage and children, the question begets another: What space is available to women who defy cultural expectations?
Through her inquiry, Sadiya discovers what her daadi's life was like during that separation and she confronts difficult historical truths: the pervasiveness of child marriage, how Partition made refugees of millions of families like hers, and how the national freedoms achieved in 1947 did not extend to women’s lives. She sees the threads of this history woven through each generation after, and finds an unexpected sense of belonging in a culture that, at first blush, shuns women for wanting lives of their own.
In a deeply personal investigation, award-winning journalist Sadiya Ansari takes us across three continents and back a century as she seeks the truth behind a family secret. Why did her grandmother Tahira abandon her seven children to follow a man from Karachi to a tiny village in Punjab? And though she eventually left him, Tahira remained estranged from her children for nearly two decades. Who was she in those years when she was no longer a wife or mother? For Sadiya herself, uninterested in marriage and children, the question begets another: What space is available to women who defy cultural expectations?
Through her inquiry, Sadiya discovers what her daadi's life was like during that separation and she confronts difficult historical truths: the pervasiveness of child marriage, how Partition made refugees of millions of families like hers, and how the national freedoms achieved in 1947 did not extend to women’s lives. She sees the threads of this history woven through each generation after, and finds an unexpected sense of belonging in a culture that, at first blush, shuns women for wanting lives of their own.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Aug 13, 2024 |
| Specifications | 232 pages | 5.5 in x 8.5 in |
| Keywords | South Asian; Pakistani; Crying in H Mart; We Have Always Been Here; Michelle Zauner; Samra Habib; Black Cake; Charmaine Wilkerson; motherhood; Others Like Me; |
|
Supporting Resources
(select item to download) |
Excerpt |
| Written By |
SADIYA ANSARI is a Pakistani Canadian journalist based in London. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, VICE, Refinery29, Maclean’s, The Walrus, and the Globe and Mail, among others. She has reported from North America, Asia, and Europe, and her work has changed legislation and won awards. She is co-founder of the Canadian Journalists of Colour, a 2021 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellow, and a 2023–24 Asper Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia. |
| Written By |
|
SADIYA ANSARI is a Pakistani Canadian journalist based in London. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, VICE, Refinery29, Maclean’s, The Walrus, and the Globe and Mail, among others. She has reported from North America, Asia, and Europe, and her work has changed legislation and won awards. She is co-founder of the Canadian Journalists of Colour, a 2021 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellow, and a 2023–24 Asper Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia. |
"[A] triumphant debut … insightful, surprising, and beautifully written." — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
” —A thoughtful and informative memoir and familial investigation. — Kirkus
” —"A beautiful story of how women caught in the middle of politics and patriarchy make the hardest of decisions. A searing, gorgeous read."—Jen Sookfong Lee, author of Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart
” —Jen Sookfong Lee, author of Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart"Filled with vulnerability and revelation, this book explores what unexpected flowers may bloom from even the most tangled family roots."—Anuja Varghese, author of the Governor General’s Literary Award–winning Chrysalis
” —Anuja Varghese, Governor General’s Literary Award–winning author of Chrysalis"I am completely floored by this book … A high-wire act of boundless empathy and incisive investigation."—Elamin Abdelmahmoud, author of Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces
” —Elamin Abdelmahmoud, author of Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in PiecesIn Exile is a study in making choices that reverberate across generations. —Samra Habib, author of We Have Always Been Here
” —Samra Habib, author of We Have Always Been Here