by Sorayya Khan
The Islamabad of my childhood is so remote there was only one way to keep it alive.
I wrote my home.
See? I tell my children.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to many people without whom this novel would not be what it is. My agent, Bill Contardi, for his exceptional patience and resolve. Carmen Johnson, my editor, for her wisdom and tremendous enthusiasm. Simar Puneet, David Davidar, and Ravi Singh for the Aleph edition. Douglas Unger, Laura Rhoton McNeal, and Lisa Loomis for crucial encouragement. Sehba Sarwar, Waqas Khwaja, Christine Kosmicki, and Pat Dutt for being early and important readers. Joel Dinerstein for a small but critical edit. Duncan Murrell for a long-ago insight that kept me in the story. Saeed Qureshi, Mehreen Saeed, and other family who indulged my random questions. My siblings, Omar Khan and Ayesha Khan, who tirelessly supported me, and Kamini Ramani and Ahsan Jamil, who did the same. My parents, Thera Khan and Munir Ahmad Khan, whose belief in me was immense and whose absence is profound. My children, Kamal and Shahid, who never begrudged the city or the story that preceded them. Finally, my husband, Naeem Inayatullah, who makes everything possible and to whom everything is due.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2016 Barbara Adams
Sorayya Khan is the author of two previous novels, Noor and Five Queen’s Road. She is the recipient of a US Fulbright award, and City of Spies was the 2015 winner of the Best International Fiction Book at the Sharjah International Book Fair.