The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali

Winner: 2023 Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction A New York Times' pick for "Best Historical Fiction 2022" A New York Times' pick for "Books for Summer 2022" "A miraculous performance ... Khan's suspenseful, thought-provoking narrative is a challenge to simple assumptions about enemies and friends, loyalty and betrayal." Alida Becker, The New York Times "Deeply researched and beautifully written." Kirkus Reviews "Khan engages readers with a confident style and seamless storytelling." Publishers Weekly "As affecting as it is intellectually powerful, the novel is a master lesson in the art of historical fiction." Pankaj Mishra, author of Age of Anger and Run and Hide "A glorious novel about a forgotten place and a part of our history that we hardly ever talk about." Mohammed Hanif, author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes and Red Birds "With piercingly lucid attention, Uzma has drawn an intricate spider's web that is both a record and a refuge ... the tenderness with which (she) write(s) is a kind of intervention of knowing that is in opposition to the colonial one." Aracelis Girmay, conversation with the author in Los Angeles Review of Books "Part of the beauty of Khan's writing stems from the fact that she does not need to actively portray racism, she makes virtually all her characters live it ... Khan writes with quietly restrained but powerful passion." Dawn, Pakistan Khan is adept at creating worlds that are at once magical and terrifying. She creates a universe out of a footnote of history. Her writing is crystal, vivid." Indian Express "For every historical outrage eventually there comes along a work of fiction that does it justice miraculously (lifting) the mists of collective forgetfulness. The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali performs that vital and welcome miracle. The voices of the past have been successfully captured and amplified by this remarkable novel ... (with a) dream-like quality to (the) beautiful prose." The Herald Pakistan & Scroll.in "This fiction is the new truth we need to know." New Indian Express

Uzma Aslam Khan is the author of five novels translated worldwide to critical acclaim. These include Trespassing, recipient of a Commonwealth Prize nomination in 2003; The Geometry of God, a Kirkus Reviews' Best Book of 2009; Thinner Than Skin, nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and winner of the French Embassy Prize for Best Fiction at the Karachi Literature Festival 2014. Khans new novel, The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali, was shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! Best Book of the Year Award for Fiction 2019 and won the 9th UBL Literary Awards English Language Fiction category 2020 as well as the Karachi Literature Festival-Getz Pharma Fiction Prize 2021. She currently lives in western Massachusetts.