We Are Not in Pakistan

by Shauna Singh Baldwin

Overview

A Quill & Quire Book of the Year

Ten years after her stunning debut, Shauna Singh Baldwin returns to Goose Lane with an outstanding new collection of ten stories. Migrating from Central America to the American South, from Metro Toronto to the Ukraine, this book features an unforgettable cast of characters. In the title story, 16-year-old Megan hates her Pakistani grandmother — until Grandma disappears. In the enchanting magical realism of "Naina," an Indo-Canadian woman is pregnant with a baby girl who refuses to be born. "The View from the Mountain" introduces Wilson Gonzales, who makes friends with his new American boss, the aptly named Ted Grand. But following 9/11, Ted's suspicions cloud his judgment and threaten his friendship with Wilson.

Each containing an entire world, these stories are marked by indelible images and unforgettable turns of phrase — hallmarks of Baldwin's fictional world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780864924889
Publisher:	Goose Lane Editions
Publication date:	09/14/2007
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	5.59(w) x 8.43(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Shauna Singh Baldwin's first novel, What the Body Remembers, was published in 1999 by Knopf Canada, Transworld UK, Doubleday USA, and (as an audiobook) by Goose Lane Editions. It received the 2000 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book (Canada-Caribbean region) and has been translated into fourteen languages. Her second novel The Tiger Claw was a finalist for Canada's Giller Prize 2004. Shauna is the author of English Lessons and Other Stories and coauthor of A Foreign Visitor's Survival Guide to America. Her awards include the 1995 Writer's Union of Canada Award for short prose and the 1997 Canadian Literary Award. English Lessons received the 1996 Friends of American Writers Award.

A former radio producer and ecommerce consultant, her fiction and poems are widely published in literary magazines and anthologies in the US, Canada, and India. She has served on several juries and teaches short courses in creative writing. Shauna holds an MBA from Marquette University and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. We Are Not in Pakistan: Stories was published by Goose Lane Editions in 2007. Shauna's third novel, The Selector of Souls, was published by Knopf Canada in September 2012. Reviews, reading schedule, and interviews at: www.ShaunaSinghBaldwin.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Shauna Singh Baldwin's collection of stories is potent, poignant, disturbing, and of immense importance at this point in time. She examines the intersection of private lives with political and cultural convulsions. She illuminates terrorism for us; not just the terrorism of the media, but the invisible and horrifically costly terrorism of racist paranoia. I can't think of a more valuable book for our dangerous times." — Janette Turner Hospital, author of Oyster and Due Preparations for the Plague

"Engaging and enlightening, international in scope, Baldwin's wonderful eye for detail and her clear, elegant prose bring the daily realities of these estranged characters to life — daily realities that are often profoundly affected by horrific events such as Chernobyl and 9/11. A wonderful collection." — Sandra Gulland, author of The Josephine B. Trilogy

Editorial Reviews

"Shauna Singh Baldwin's writing is, quite simply, brilliant."

Atlantic Books Today

"Shauna Singh Baldwin is her own master."

Times (London)

"Baldwin is ... far more overtly political than most of Canada's younger novelists, and she becomes more ambitious with every book. ... Shakes up the prettiness of much of the Canlit landscape. It wants to be global, and in this it succeeds."

Globe and Mail

"Baldwin displays an uncanny knack for getting under the reader's skin and stirring a potent cocktail of empathy, sadness, pity and rage. She has a gift for dialogue — an almost musical ear. Her writing is so strong and so consistent that she'll make you forget you're reading. And that alone is worth the price of entry."

Montreal Gazette

"Baldwin is . . . far more overtly political than most of Canada's younger novelists, and she becomes more ambitious with every book. . . . Shakes up the prettiness of much of the Canlit landscape. It wants to be global, and in this it succeeds." — The Globe and Mail

"Shauna Singh Baldwin is her own master." — The Times (London)

"Baldwin displays an uncanny knack for getting under the reader's skin and stirring a potent cocktail of empathy, sadness, pity and rage. She has a gift for dialogue — an almost musical ear. Her writing is so strong and so consistent that she'll make you forget you're reading. And that alone is worth the price of entry." — Montreal Gazette

"Shauna Singh Baldwin's writing is, quite simply, brilliant." — Atlantic Books Today

From the Publisher