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Vendor
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

THAT THING WE CALL A HEART

Sheba Karim

Shabnam Qureshi is a sparky, imaginative Pakistani- American teen growing up in suburban New Jersey. In
an AP history class at her tony private school, Shabnam, in order to make herself more interesting, invents a
tragic family story set during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. While her lie initially has the desired
effect, it sets of a painful series of events. To top it off, her best friend Maggie leaves for a backpacking trip
across Europe, leaving Shabnam to face the prospect of spending the summer before college moping around the house with her well-meaning but overbearing mother and emotionally distant, awkward father. But things look up when she meets the charismatic Marianne, who offers her a job selling pies at Andromeda's Pie Shack. Not only does Shabnam meet free-spirited, mysterious Jamie at the pie shack, over the course of the summer she begins to bond with her father, who teaches her about Urdu poetry and a painful truth about Partition. Set against a backdrop of Radiohead music and the evocative metaphors of Urdu poetry, THAT THING WE CALL A HEART is an honest, moving story of a young woman's explorations of first love, sexuality, desire, self-worth, her relationship with her parents, the importance of friendship, and what it means to be true. (1st of a two-book deal)

Sheba Karim is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. She is currently working on an adult historical novel entitled THE SERPENT QUEEN about the historical figure Razia, the daughter of a Sultan in 13th century India, who herself became a Sultan, took her African slave as a consort, and rode into battle on an elephant.
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Book

Published by Harper Teen

Comments

Bloomsbury

opulated by complicated characters who are so well described readers will feel they might bump into them on the street, Karim's second novel delivers on its title's promise. Read more...