WANT TO GO?
Avid Bookshop presents a young adult author visit featuring Becky Albertalli, Jasmine Warga and Aisha Saeed; Friday, June 5, 6:30- 7:30 p.m. Free. 493 Prince Ave., Athens, Ga. www.avidbookshop.com/welcome 706-352-2060
Atlanta novelist Aisha Saeed has gained attention for her debut novel, "Written in the Stars," a young adult tale of a Pakistani-American girl fighting to escape an arranged marriage.
It’s a story with many familiar elements. Saeed, 35, a Pakistani-American who grew up in Florida, is also in an arranged marriage.
When Saeed was 21 her parents negotiated a meeting between their daughter and a suitor, a tall young man from Columbia, S.C., who arrived with his sister and mother for lunch one day. “Although we talked on the phone a lot,” said Saeed, “we only met one time before we said yes.”
Here’s the difference: Unlike her protagonist, Saeed and her husband made up their own minds about marriage. “We could have said no.”
Things are different for Naila, the heroine of “Written in the Stars,” whose parents trick her into a trip to their homeland to break up a relationship that they won’t allow. In short order they’ve picked out a Pakistani husband for their daughter, and her fate is seemingly sealed.
Saeed will speak about the novel Friday, June 5, at the Avid Bookshop in Athens. She will also address the need for a more far-ranging cast of characters in the books written for children and young adults.
She is the vice president of strategy for an organization called We Need Diverse Books, a grassroots effort by writers and artists to introduce young readers to a broader range of cultures.
Though the tale Saeed tells is a frightening one, it also reveals a culture and people that are engaging.
Saeed wanted to capture the feel of the landscape, the food, the day-to-day conversation, and to some extent she had to seek help from her parents for background. Raised in Palm Beach and Miami, she hasn’t visited Pakistan since she was 9 years old.
She remembers the explosive heat, the buttered puri at breakfast, the beauty of the cultivated farmland. “I remember walking through the fields, cutting sugar cane,” she said.
Today Saeed seems light-years from that culture. She has a degree in law. She wears Western clothes. Her husband, Kashif Iqbal, also a Pakistani-American, is an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a very obliging mate. He babysits their two boys while she is away on book tours, or busy writing.
But a suggestion of her background still clings, from the tiny jewel in her pierced nostril, to the hint of an accent.
Meeting at a breakfast spot near their Dunwoody home, Saeed spoke about the impact of the book on her life.
About her inspiration to write the book:
This story was inspired by people I knew who went through this.
About “forced marriages” in the U.S.:
When the book deal was first announced I was contacted by a Mormon organization in Utah. I realized it (forced marriage) is not just a South Asian thing. It’s happening here.
When she knew her mother was planning a meeting with a potential suitor:
I came downstairs and I heard my mom talking on the phone asking, ‘How tall is he?’
Her friends’ reaction to her unusual courtship:
My friends asked me, ‘When in those six weeks did you fall in love with him?’
About comparisons to conventional Western courtship:
Some of my friends have lived together, they got married and then got divorced. It just doesn’t always work out. I’ve been married 12 years, we have two children. It’s good.
On whether the book is for Westerners or Pakistanis:
I think it’s for anyone. We need diverse books. I want other people to see us, to see that we are not these aliens. … Young adult fiction does not have people who look like me. I want to share a little bit more about Pakistani life.
On possible criticism from the Pakistani community:
That’s not happened. That tells me I underestimated my community.
About the Author
