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Salt and Saffron

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( 2,006 ratings, 212 reviews)
Brief Description
_______________'Beautifully written in cunning, punning, glancing prose' - Independent'A whirlwind … Owes plenty to Salman Rushdie and some to Hollywood … Exuberant, knowingly exotic and deceptively serious' - Guardian'Kamila Shamsie has created a rich, bright world' - Times Literary Supplement_______________Coming back to Karachi is like stepping... Read More
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By the acclaimed winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018

By the acclaimed winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

_______________

'Beautifully written in cunning, punning, glancing prose' - Independent

'A whirlwind … Owes plenty to Salman Rushdie and some to Hollywood … Exuberant, knowingly exotic and deceptively serious' - Guardian

'Kamila Shamsie has created a rich, bright world' - Times Literary Supplement
_______________

Coming back to Karachi is like stepping into the sea again after months on land.

Aliya finds herself constantly enraptured by her family’s unsettling legends. These are troublesome stories, tinged by the Dard-e-Dil’s fear that they are cursed by their ‘not-quite’ twins. As she becomes romantically intertwined with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Aliya begins to see links between herself and her scandalous aunt Mariam, which may spell her undoing.

A tale of family lore, secrets and forbidden love, Salt and Saffron is an awe-inspiring novel written with compassion, wryness and glittering prose.
_______________

'A funny, clever and romantic story' - Barbara Trapido

'The stories within the stories describe Pakistani society, its peoples and its mores, better than anything that has come from the Other Side for a long time. This is a good read' - India Today

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781526680006

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 September 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 194.0mm

Weight: 189g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.

@kamilashamsie

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