Maps for Lost Lovers is a stunningly brave and searingly brutal novel charting a year in the life of a working class community from the subcontinent--a group described by author Nadeem Aslam as "Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and Sri Lankans living in a northern town". The older residents, who have left their homelands for the riches of England, have communally dubbed it Dasht-e-Tanhaii, which roughly translates as "the wilderness of solitude" or "the desert of loneliness". As the seasons change, from the first crystal flakes of snow that melt into "a monsoon raindrop", we slowly learn the fate of Jugnu and Chanda, a couple whose disappearance is rumoured to have been a result of their fatal decision to live in sin in a community where the phrase holds true meaning.

This uncompromisingly honest--and often uncomfortable to read--story is told through the eyes of Jugnu's brother's family who live next door. Shamas is director of the local Community Relations Council; a liberal, educated man he still mourns the passing of communism and yearns for passion in his later years. His wife Kaukub, daughter of a Pakistani cleric, is also in mourning for the passing of her devout Muslim upbringing and is forced to watch her three children turn "native". She tries increasingly desperate measures to turn them back to Islam. Pakistani-born Nadeem Aslam skilfully intertwines myths and legends with a harsh, modern reality. Tragic sub-plots of Romeo-and-Juliet proportions abound. And while some of the extended descriptive passages sit uneasily on the page and, towards the end, several rants against Islam forced through the mouths of characters become thinly-veiled lectures, nevertheless Maps for Lost Lovers is an epic work and an important milestone in British literature that deserves to be widely read by all multicultural societies seeking mutual tolerance and understanding. --Carey Green

At the heart of this extraordinary novel lies the character of Kaukab, a wife and mother increasingly out of touch with those she loves most: her homeland, her husband and her three increasingly estranged and westernised children. Her faith in her religion and family is her only support. The disappearance of her brother-in-law Jugnu and his lover Chanda and their suspected murder forms the dramatic backdrop for a year of turmoil in the life of Kaukab's splintering family. Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses both their joys and their pain in a language that is arrestingly poetic.

2008-06-19 A wonderful read

I must say that at first that I found the writing style difficult, but having got into the book I was drawn to it more and more. I was fascinated by the tale of Pakistani familes struggling to adapt to life in England, the parents clinging to the traditional ways of 'back home' and the children becoming more 'western' and the tensions this produced within the generations. I read this twice, the first time to discover the story and then again immediately afterwards to appreciate the desciptive language. Maybe not everyones' type of book, but I loved it!