Writing on my Forehead

Khaled Hosseini, author of THE KITE RUNNER and A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, offers the following endorsement for this stunning debut novel: "Nafisa Haji has written a moving meditation on the meaning of family, tradition, and the ties that bind. THE WRITING ON MY FOREHEAD is lyrical and touching. It is a story of mother and daughters, and a story of a young Muslim woman at crossroads, shaped by the forces of her past, her religion, her roots, her culture, and her own determined will."

Fate, in the form of tragedy, has finally caught up with Saira Qader - a free-spirited and rebellious Muslim-American of Indo-Pakistani descent-who finds herself caught in a struggle between her family's traditions and her desire for independence. As she tells her own story she weaves in the tales of her family, beginning with one grandfather's scandalous infidelity, another grandfather's work in the struggle for Indian Independence, and an English teacher's quest for personal independence in newly formed Pakistan. As Saira learns more about her past, she understands what she never wanted to admit - that fate is not something she can avert with her own actions and faith is not a matter of intellectual preference.