Beyond the Fields

Author: Aysha Baqir

₨995.00

SKU:978-969-716-171-3

Born to a poor, landless farmer in the month of the monsoon rains, twins Zara and Tara grow up amongst the fields of wheat and cotton in a remote village in Pakistan. During an afternoon spree of games, Tara is kidnapped from the fields and raped. All seems to be resolved after her parents accept an unexpected marriage proposal for their “dishonoured” daughter. But the nightmare resurfaces when a newspaper clipping emerges calling the union into question. Determined to rescue her twin, Zara embarks on a harrowing quest for justice battling keepers of culture that upholds propriety above all else and braving the unknown dangers of an urban centre. Set in the early 1980s against the backdrop of martial law and social turmoil, Beyond the Fields is a riveting, timely look at the profound inequality, traditions that disempower women in our world and survival as a dance to the beat of a different future.

Category: Literature

Description

Aysha Baqir grew up in Pakistan. Her time in college sparked a passion for economic development. In 1998, she founded a pioneering not-for-profit economic development organization, Kaarvan Crafts Foundation, with a mission to alleviate poverty. Her novel, Beyond the Fields, was published in 2019 and featured at Lahore/Karachi Literary Festivals, Adab Festival, Singapore Writers Festival, Women in Dawn Literature Festival (2022), Money FM Career 360 and at Yale-NUS. Her interviews and book reviews have appeared in Ex-pat Living, Counter-currents, The Herald, Kitaab, and The Tempest. She is an Ashoka Fellow and recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Alumni Achievement Award from LUMS.