Salt and Saffron
By (Author) Kamila Shamsie
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
6th January 2026
25th September 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Family life fiction / Stories about family
Narrative theme: coming of age
823.92
256
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
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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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Coming back to Karachi is like stepping into the sea again after months on land.
Aliya finds herself constantly enraptured by her familys unsettling legends. These are troublesome stories, tinged by the Dard-e-Dils fear that they are cursed by their not-quite twins. As she becomes romantically intertwined with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Aliya begins to see links between herself and her scandalous aunt Mariam, which may spell her undoing.
A tale of family lore, secrets and forbidden love, Salt and Saffron is an awe-inspiring novel written with compassion, wryness and glittering prose.
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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
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 *
A funny, clever and romantic story perhaps Kamila Shamsie is our new multi-culti Nancy Mitford; a global girl who does love in both hot and cold climates -- 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 *
Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won 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 Novelist in 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.
@kamilashamsie