Karuna Ezara Parikh

The Heart Asks Pleasure First

‘A luminous, hypnotic novel, as much about the beauty of language as it is about the struggles of life’ – ANN PATCHETT An extraordinary tale of love in a world being torn asunder. It's a sunny day in 2001 and Daya, a ballet student, is sitting in a park in Wales far away from her home in India. Unbeknownst to her, she is about to meet Aaftab, a young Muslim lawyer from Pakistan, and fall inexplicably in love. Even as Aaftab battles his heart, their relationship transcends the divides of religion, nationality and language. They forge profound bonds but the cataclysmic events of the year will have dangerous ramifications and push them to confront the most difficult complexities of their lives. Set in a world of students but breathtaking in its expansiveness, The Heart Asks Pleasure First is a spellbinding first novel that speaks urgently to the frailties of our times. Karuna Ezara Parikh humanizes the big themes of friendship and family, migration and xenophobia, with the deftness of a poet and the magic of a born storyteller.

Where Stories Gather, Karuna Ezara Parikh's first volume of poetry, presents a curation of her most popular work alongside new material where she delves into a deeply personal realm, asking and answering questions of identity, memory, womanhood, and the heart. Her poem Pray for the World, published on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in 2015, echoed around a bruised, grieving world, speaking directly to those bewildered and outraged by the moral contradictions of international politics. Again and again since then, Karuna's subtle commentary has garnered wide readership. The collection marks her as a poet of the fragile human condition, with poetry that is urgent and lyrical, intimate and fiery, empathetic and hopeful.

Karuna Ezara Parikh

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