27 December 2024, National: Westland Books is delighted to announce the acquisition of Maryam & Son, the highly anticipated new novel by award-winning novelist Mirza Waheed. Set for publication in the Context imprint, the noveldelves into the complex emotional world of a mother whose life is thrown into turmoil when her only son goes missing and is suspected of being involved in a distant conflict in Iraq.
Commenting on the publication of the book, Mirza Waheed said, ‘I am truly delighted that Karthika V.K., my editor at Westland/Context, will shepherd my new novel into the world. I couldn’t ask for a better team. Maryam has kept me company for the last five years or so. I have enjoyed writing her, thinking about her, her sisters, and her son Dil. I hope people will like Maryam and her sisters at least as much as I do.’
Karthika VK, Publisher of Westland Books, said, ‘Mirza Waheed’s searing new novel tells the story of our world today: complex, frightening, always on edge. Through immersive, perceptive storytelling, it asks a crucial question: What does it take to be a mother in these times of disinformation and surveillance, when truth often blends into fiction? I am very pleased to be able to publish this book and to have Waheed back in Context for publication in 2025.’
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Clare Alexander, Agent, Aitken Alexander Associates, said of the book, ‘I’m delighted that Waheed will be reunited with his long-term editor at Westland Books for his profound and moving new novel. Maryam & Son is about the impact on a very ordinary mother in the British suburbs, a place that would seem to have nothing to do with a distant conflict, when her only son goes missing and she is told he has become ‘the Swordsman’ in Iraq. In the story of the women who have been left behind, Waheed has created something very special–as tragic as Maryam’s situation is, she and her sisters emerge as funny, dauntless, relatable and very, very real.’
Maryam & Son is a beautiful and deeply moving story told primarily in the voice of the mother of a boy who is presumed to have gone missing, continuing Waheed’s exploration of identity and resilience in these difficult times.
The book will be published by Westland in 2025.
About Westland Books (a division of Pratilipi)
Westland Books is an award-winning Indian publisher with a diverse and exciting range of books from popular and literary fiction to business, politics, biography, spirituality, popular science, health and self-help. Its key publishing imprints include Context, which publishes award-winning literary fiction and non-fiction; Eka, which publishes the best of contemporary writing in Indian languages and in translation; Tranquebar, home to the best new fiction from the Indian subcontinent; the eponymous Westland Sport, Westland Business and Westland Non-Fiction, and ‘Red Panda’, which publishes a range of books for children of different ages.
About the Author
Mirza Waheed is a novelist and essayist. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, The Collaborator, The Book of Gold Leaves, and Tell Her Everything, which won the Hindu Prize for Fiction in 2019. Waheed lives in London.
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