Searching for ‘home’: Soniah Kamal launches debut novel in Lahore

An Isolated Incident takes the reader on a journey through various geographical boundaries.

LAHORE: Soniah Kamal launched her debut novel An Isolated Incident on Wednesday at Liberty Books. Beginning in Srinagar, Kashmir, the novel takes the reader on a journey, crossing various geographical boundaries as the protagonists, Zari and Billy, search for a home.

After reading out an excerpt from the book, Kamal talked about the “sense of home” that her debut novel explored.

“Since I have lived in several countries, to me home is more than the traditional brick structure. For me, it is the sunshine and rain that I found constant in all the places I lived in.” She talked about her protagonists’ search for home. Zari who is looking for a geographical place, a tangible piece of land to call her own and Billy who is on an emotional journey to find a place where he feels he belongs.

Answering questions from the audience, Kamal also talked about the journey that took place when writing the novel.

“I have been working on this novel for over 10 years,” Kamal told the attentive audience.

She said that she had first conceived the idea as a youth and since then had rewritten it three times. “I matured as a person, too, and there was a lot of research that went into it as well,” she said. Nevertheless, the main storyline remained the same, she said.

Despite the major political shift in the world after 9/11, Kamal chose to set her novel in a world before that. “I thought it would keep the novel focused, and ensure that it remained true to what I planned initially,” she said, while talking to The Express Tribune.

The book has been launched in India and is now being launched in Pakistan and other countries in the subcontinent. It is available in Lahore at Liberty Books, Readings, Variety Books, Ferozesons and Vanguard Books.

Currently, Kamal is working on a collection of short stories and a second novel.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2015.