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The Gulmohar or 'flame-coin' tree appears rooted in the soil of the Indian subcontinent. It is in fact a transplant, making it the perfect symbol for this tale about an Anglo-Asian marriage spanning decades and continents. Framed in distilled prose, this is a moving fable about the slow and sometimes starling groth of love. A slender delight. --Adrian Turpin Financial Times 23rd may 2009<br /><br />Another Gulmohar Tree offers an exploration of life and love but rersists reassuring solutions. Just as Usman dislikes the younger poets who write optimistically about Pakistan's 'New Dawn and the Blessed Golden Soil of the Promised land',so Hussein refuses to indulge in sentimental narratives of the individual or nation. We do however glimpse some light. Hussein encourages us to reflect on what belonging might really mean. Through Lydia, we learn that the enchanting gulmohar tree is not native to Pakistan, but is 'a transplant' from Madagascar. Usman becomes aware that he has ceased to notice both its glittering scarlet blossom in his garden and the laughter and love of his wife. He recalls the words of the great Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib: 'The vision of a flower teaches the eye to rejoice in every colour'. Readers of Hussein's precise prose in this quietly melancholy novel will be similarly rewarded. --Lara Pawson TLS 24th may 2009<br /><br />'We are lucky to have Hussein among us, telling us stories as few can, with his particular mixture of deep love, understanding, and sadness.' Amit Chaudhuri --Amit Chaudhuri
Aamer Hussein is doing something quite original in his fiction. He explores the meetings of cultures, but he is no sociologist. He fuses elements of folk tales and mythology into his work, but is not a magic realist. His characters live human lives, both creatures of their societies and individual men and women who love and work, marry and raise children, highly conscious of their hopes and limitations. At the end of this book, in the almost Tolstoyan portrait of the family gathered together, Aamer Hussein shows that he has the rare gift of expressing enduring and radiant happiness. --William Palmer The Independent 5th june 2009
'We are lucky to have Hussein among us, telling us stories as few can, with his particular mixture of deep love, understanding, and sadness.' Amit Chaudhuri --Amit Chaudhuri
Aamer Hussein is doing something quite original in his fiction. He explores the meetings of cultures, but he is no sociologist. He fuses elements of folk tales and mythology into his work, but is not a magic realist. His characters live human lives, both creatures of their societies and individual men and women who love and work, marry and raise children, highly conscious of their hopes and limitations. At the end of this book, in the almost Tolstoyan portrait of the family gathered together, Aamer Hussein shows that he has the rare gift of expressing enduring and radiant happiness. --William Palmer The Independent 5th june 2009
'We are lucky to have Hussein among us, telling us stories as few can, with his particular mixture of deep love, understanding, and sadness.' Amit Chaudhuri --Amit Chaudhuri
Product Description
Usman is visiting post-war London from Pakistan when he meets a young aspiring artist called Lydia who has, like himself, come out of an unhappy marriage. Just as the lonely strangers' friendship begins to blossom into something deeper Usman has to return to Karachi, leaving Lydia behind. Two years later, Lydia impulsively abandons her life in London and boards a ship to Karachi, where the two are married. But as the years flit by Usman feels distanced from his life and realises that he hasn't noticed the buds of the gulmohar tree unfurl. A beautiful account of a marriage that is in turns wry and unashamedly romantic.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This short novel - only 114 pages - by Aamer Hussein is enchanting. Visiting London from Pakistan Usman meets Lydia. Both have had unhappy marriages and they soon become friends but Lydia is left behind when Usman returns to Pakistan. Two years later she leaves her life and family behind to follow him. In Pakistan they marry. The Gulmohar tree, usually considered to be native to the Indian subcontinent was actually transplanted from Madagascar and is a symbol of this marriage between two cultures. It is a gentle story, beautifully written, almost fable-like in the telling and love is at its heart. Reviewed by Mary Smith author of No More Mulberries
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
An interesting novella of cross cultural love
9 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback
This was a marginally interesting love story of a British woman who meets a Pakistani man while he is working as a journalist in London, who follows him to Karachi after she divorces her husband and his wife dies. The book begins with several short and interconnected tales, which I found more enjoyable that the narrative of the lovers. This was a quick and not unpleasant read, but not one I would strongly recommend,
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