AustLit

'Azhar Abidi's The House of Bilqis, set in the tumultuous Pakistan of the 1980s, illuminates the complexities of love—the love between mother and son, husband and wife, mistress and servant, the love of country, past, and tradition. All of these bonds, with all their attendant joys and sorrows, swirl around Bilqis Ara, the matriarch of the Khan family. A formidable, aristocratic figure, Bilqis treasures the etiquette and traditions of her noble lineage as dearly as the memory of her refined, intellectual husband. She is hurt and dismayed, therefore, when Samad, her only child, marries a foreigner—an Australian girl named Kate who has no understanding of Bilqis's values and expectations for her son's future. Samad and Kate not only choose to live far away in Melbourne, but they urge Bilqis to give up all she knows—her home, her servants, her place in the world—to join them there. Meanwhile, her favorite servant girl, Mumtaz, enters into a secret and forbidden courtship with Omar, a passionate young mujahid from another ethnic clan. Bilqis knows what the dangerous consequences for the young couple may be, and her sense of responsibility toward her servants, combined with a maternal concern for Mumtaz, sparks her serious concern for this modern and ill-advised "love-match." Omar's own feelings for Mumtaz, in turn, are complicated by his devotion to Islam and its prohibitions against sex (and sexual women).

'As the narrative shifts from one perspective to the next, the intricate web connecting lovers, families, and classes in modern Pakistan is revealed. While the love that Bilqis has for her employees is as incomprehensible to Omar as his devotion to a cause is to her, even they are bound by their mutual love for Mumtaz, just as Bilqis and Kate are bound by their love for Samad despite their differences. Abidi suggests that while no one individual may be completely known by another, the ties of love, like the ties of home, can withstand the tests of betrayal, politics, and even time.' (Publisher's blurb)