Renegade Romantic

As an Islamic atheist and through his new book, Nadeem Aslam is best placed to show us how to reconcile the jagged edges of our identities, finds Satyavrat KK.

- Satyavrat KK

My novels are my way of saying to the cruel, unjust people in the world, ‘You think you got away with it?!’” A Nadeem Aslam novel can be many things. You could read it for the poetry or the hypnotic imagery; the immediacy of its events or the relevance of its anxieties; its rich historicity or its cultural authenticity. However, if there’s one consistent thread that runs through his five novels, it is this Pakistani author’s need to tell the stories of ordinary people and the courage they call upon everyday. “I have no interest in the rich. They can sort out their own problems,” he says.