A thing of beauty. . . . You must read it.--Nadeem Aslam
A shower of pleasures.--Julia O'Faolain
Sophisticated, cosmopolitan and seductive, the novel engages mind and
senses alike.--André Naffis-Sahely, The Times Literary Supplement
Like his parents, he too spent many hours sending cloud messages to
other places, messages of longing for something that he knew existed
otherwhere.
London, that distant rainy place his father lived in once, is where
Mehran finds himself after leaving Karachi in his teens. And it is there
that his adult life unfolds: he discovers the joys of poetry, faces the
trials of love and work, and spends his dreaming hours sending cloud
messages to other places, hoping, one day, to tell his own story.
A feeling of not quite belonging anywhere pursues Mehran as he travels
to Italy, India, and Pakistan. But the relationships he forms--with
wounded, passionate Marvi, volatile Marco, and the enigmatic
Riccarda--and his power of recollection finally bring him some sense,
however fleeting, of home.
Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in his
teens. He lectures at the University of Southampton and the Institute of
English Studies and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His
novella Another Gulmohar Tree was shortlisted for the Commonwealth
Writers' Prize Europe and South Asia 2010.
