Description
An orphaned young woman raised under strict purdah, Laila is drawn into a changing world when she moves to Lucknow and finds herself surrounded by relatives and university friends swept up in the politics of independence. As the 1930s unfold toward partition, her personal life becomes a battleground between tradition and desire—especially when love asks her to choose beyond the boundaries her family has set. Told with unsentimental clarity and a deeply human focus, the novel traces how a woman’s inner freedom develops alongside a nation’s unraveling. Through themes of patriarchy, cultural constraint, political awakening, and the costs of belonging, Attia Hosain delivers a luminous, psychologically astute portrait of Muslim life at the edge of history.
Available Editions
paperback
Virago
Published Jan 1, 1988
336 pages
ISBN: 9780860686439
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Details
First Published
1961
Language
eng
Content Warnings
No content warnings identified.