Whether separated from their home country and culture, bereft after the death of a loved one, or set apart from the rhythms of the world by a grueling night shift, the characters in Farzana Doctor’s debut novel Stealing Nasreen all battle loneliness and isolation. Salma and Shaffiq Paperwala moved to Toronto from Mumbai, India two years before the story begins. Both are homesick, unsure of their decision to move, and woefully underemployed.
Nasreen is a Canadian-born daughter of immigrants from the same city and ethnic community as the Paperwalas. Having lost her mother to cancer and her girlfriend to infidelity, Nasreen plans a trip to India with her father to relax and spend time with family. To prepare for the trip she ends up taking classes in the home of Mrs. Paperwala, who offers lessons in Gujarati (the principal language of the Indian state of Gujarat) until she can find a full-time teaching position.
Little does Nasreen know that Mr. Paperwala is the janitor at the institute where she works as a psychologist. Both Shaffiq and Salma find themselves drawn to Nasreen. Shaffiq sees in her a vision of his daughters as adult Canadian women. Nasreen’s open sexual orientation leads Salma to recall the ladylove she left in India when she married Shaffiq. Through Nasreen, the Paperwalas confront their fears and regrets about leaving India and becoming citizens in a new and unknown place.
The novel marks a career change for Doctor, who shifted to a private psychotherapy practice to make time for her writing. “Initially it was a hobby and I didn’t think of myself as a writer,” she said. Doctor wrote the first draft of the first chapter for a continuing education course at U of T. “I felt there was something important happening in the story that I wanted to keep developing.”
In presenting issues of homosexuality and social expectations, Doctor was intent on steering away from a stereotypical approach. “So often we hear negative stories about the kids who are getting disowned and thrown out of their houses, and that still happens,” she said. “But we don’t hear much when families embrace their kids, and there are a lot of those stories as well.”
Though it reveals the growing pains of a new novelist, Stealing Nasreen is a well-executed story, uplifting, and even funny in its very human portrayal of isolation and longing in our often alienating city.
Farzana Doctor will hold a reading and discussion about the themes of her novel at U of T Centre for Women and Trans People (563 Spadina Ave, room 100) on Thursday February 12 from 5 to 7 p.m.
