Salt and Saffron

By Kamila Shamsie

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'Beautifully written in cunning, punning, glancing prose' - Independent

'A whirlwind … Owes plenty to Salman Rushdie and some to Hollywood … Exuberant, knowingly exotic and deceptively serious' - Guardian

'Kamila Shamsie has created a rich, bright world' - Times Literary Supplement
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BY THE ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

The Dard-e-Dils are characterised by their prominent clavicles and love of stories. Aliya may not have inherited her family's patrician looks, but she is prey to their legends that stretch back to the days of Timur Lang. There is a sting to most of these tales, for the Dard-e-Dils consider themselves cursed by their 'not-quite' twins. Amidst her growing attraction to a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Aliya begins to believe that she is another 'not-quite' twin, linked to her scandalous aunt Mariam in a way that hardly bodes well…
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'A funny, clever and romantic story' - Barbara Trapido

'The stories within the stories describe Pakistani society, its peoples and its mores, better than anything that has come from the Other Side for a long time. This is a good read' - India Today

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781408826003

Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels including Home Fire which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2018, and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and won the London Hellenic Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 2013; she was also awarded a South Bank Arts Award in 2018. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.

Reviews for Salt and Saffron

[othemts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This contemporary novel tells the story of Aliya, a Pakistani woman of an aristocratic family who becomes reacquainted with family members - first in London and then in Karachi - after being away for four years at a university in America. Aliya thinks of herself as a family historian and a storyteller, but over the course of the novel she becomes aware of aspects of her family's story she never knew, especially that relating to the Partition of India which also divided the family. It's easy for me to get lost in this book, both by the complex family relations and the many Urdu terms sprinkled through the text. On the other hand, unlike many Around the World for a Good Book choices, Salt and Saffron is funny. I knew this right from the start when Shamsie writes: "Confused? Would you rather I changed the topic to yak milk production?"The plot feels a little flimsy and soulless as if its there merely to serve an intellectual exercise about genealogy. The novel has its moments and overall I'd say its a good but not great book.

[nordie_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable little story, as Aliya travels back home from America to India. Carrier of stories for her generation, she is enchanted with the concept of "not quite twins" until she finds out that she is the "not quite twin" with the scandalous Aunt Mariam. Having met a man from "the wrong side of the tracks", Aliya doesnt know if she will be the one to bring shame on the family

[wandering_star_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The "salt" of the title, with illustrious literary precedent, refers to that little ingredient which is hardly worthy of mention, but without which a meal is ruined - a metaphor for the unspoken aspects of well-told family stories. In one visit home to Karachi, Aliya, the narrator, finally comes to understand the story of her family history - and that understanding helps her make decisions about what she wants her own story to be. Salt and Saffron is Rushdie-lite in both its style and its theme of a family saga interwoven with the history of the subcontinent. It's not quite good enough for me to run round recommending it to people - for that it would need a little more heart, a little less head, and a slightly more convincing ending. But it was an interesting and enjoyable read, and I'll be looking out for how Shamsie's writing develops.