Product Description
A dazzling, operatic debut novel following three generations of a Muslim Indian family confronted with a nation on the brink of change.
Working as a consultant for Kamala Harris's attorney general campaign in Obama-era San Francisco, Seema has constructed a successful life for herself in the West, despite still struggling with her father's long-ago decision to exile her from the family after she came out as lesbian. Now, nine months pregnant and estranged from the Black father of her unborn son, Seema seeks solace in the company of those she once thought lost to her: her ailing mother, Nafeesa, traveling alone to California from Chennai, and her devoutly religious sister, Tahera, a doctor living in Texas with her husband and children.
But instead of a joyful reconciliation anticipating the birth of a child, the events of this fateful week unearth years of betrayal, misunderstanding, and complicated layers of love—a tapestry of emotions as riveting and disparate as the era itself. Told from the point of view of Seema's child at the moment of his birth, and infused with the poetry of Wordsworth and Keats and verses from the Quran, Radiant Fugitives is a moving tale of a family and a country grappling with acceptance, forgiveness, and enduring love.
Working as a consultant for Kamala Harris's attorney general campaign in Obama-era San Francisco, Seema has constructed a successful life for herself in the West, despite still struggling with her father's long-ago decision to exile her from the family after she came out as lesbian. Now, nine months pregnant and estranged from the Black father of her unborn son, Seema seeks solace in the company of those she once thought lost to her: her ailing mother, Nafeesa, traveling alone to California from Chennai, and her devoutly religious sister, Tahera, a doctor living in Texas with her husband and children.
But instead of a joyful reconciliation anticipating the birth of a child, the events of this fateful week unearth years of betrayal, misunderstanding, and complicated layers of love—a tapestry of emotions as riveting and disparate as the era itself. Told from the point of view of Seema's child at the moment of his birth, and infused with the poetry of Wordsworth and Keats and verses from the Quran, Radiant Fugitives is a moving tale of a family and a country grappling with acceptance, forgiveness, and enduring love.
Reviews/Praise
"[A] sweeping family saga . . . [Radiant] Fugitives teems with the beautiful specificity of real lives lived, loved, and fought for—a genuinely radiant debut." —Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
"A complex web of family love and betrayal connects the characters of Nawaaz Ahmed's rich debut novel Radiant Fugitives . . . The resulting tale is as poetic and multi-layered as the characters themselves." —Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle
"Nawaaz Ahmed’s Radiant Fugitives (Counterpoint, August 3) is expansive, graceful, and astounding in its tenderness; it’s a novel that untangles the infinite layers a love can conjure." —Bryan Washington, Vulture
"Guaranteed to entertain and engage." —Vanity Fair
"This dazzling, heartrending debut follows two Indian sisters and their mother as they work to patch up fractures in their family . . . Ahmed brilliantly maps the tension between the three women with emotional acuity, and as Seema’s pregnancy unfolds, Ahmed slowly builds to a showdown, culminating in a shattering and unforgettable conclusion. This is a gem." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review