Q: Hello, Ms. Abdullah, and thank you for joining me. Would you mind briefly introducing yourself?
A: Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog. I am a Pakistani-American author based in Austin, Texas. My creative work focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of Pakistani women and their often unconventional choices in life.
My new novel Saffron Dreams explores the tragedy of 9/11 from the perspective of a Muslim widow. I received a grant from Hobson Foundation for that body of work. My 2005 debut book, Beyond the Cayenne Wall is a collection of stories about Pakistani women struggling to find their individualities despite the barriers imposed by society. The collection won the Norumbega Jury Prize for Outstanding Fiction and the DIY Festival Award, among other accolades.
Q: You are currently on virtual tour for Saffron Dreams; could you tell us about the book?
A: In Saffron Dream, the protagonist Arissa Illahi, a veil-wearing Muslim woman, loses her husband in the tragedy of 9/11. Pregnant and alone, she discovers the unfinished manuscript of her husband and decides to finish it as a tribute to him. Her unborn son and her husband’s legacy provide a renewed sense of hope to Arissa as she struggles to put the pieces of her life back together.
In the novel, I have attempted to capture how ordinary Muslims were affected by the tragedy of 2001—the silent majority who lead very normal lives and are law-abiding citizens of this land. They are the ones we never hear about because their lives are too ordinary to be the subject of the nightly news.
Q: Arissa sounds like a woman of great strength but also great turmoil. How much of Arissa stems from you and your personal experiences?
A: The novel is not autobiographical, although there are many similarities between the character and I. We are both writers and artists and had arranged marriages. The character’s challenges are many and greater. In the novel, the veil-wearing protagonist frequently encounters challenges about her faith and is forced to make some adjustments in her life to ward off the negative attention brought on by wearing symbols of her faith.
On a lighter note, both the character and I have flawed sense of directions but I will tell you this, certain characters of the novel were modeled after members of my family. A cousin who died after three years of marriage, leaving a pregnant wife behind drove the character of Arissa’s husband, Faizan. The cousin’s compassionate and loving parents inspired the characters of Faizan’s parents, who step in to help Arissa get back on her feet.
