Love, control and gothic shadows

A vast majority of Pakistani Anglophone fiction is constrained by geography. Driven by a desire to reflect local experiences and realities, many authors prefer to set their narratives in their own backyards rather than in distant, unfamiliar lands. Karachi-based author and lawyer Sana Pirzada has defied this trend.

Released in 2016, her first novel The Rose Within derived its creative thrust from the conventions of gothic romance. Since then, she has penned five works of fiction that build on a similar motif, including a novella titled The Gavel and the Lotus, which was launched earlier this year.

Most Pakistani readers would be puzzled by Pirzada’s abiding interest in a category of fiction that seems like an anachronism in these modern times. Be that as it may, her vast, intriguing and unusual oeuvre is a reminder that fiction writers from Pakistan can, quite frankly, allow their imagination to fly. In an age when fiction from the country offers recurring meditations on Pakistan’s social and political realities, there is ample room for narratives that deviate from the norm.

Defiance, though, has its limits. Numerous authors have suffered centuries of neglect before their works have landed in the laps of discerning readers. Pirzada’s fiction remains something of an anomaly in Pakistan’s literary landscape and she predominantly self-publishes her books.

The Gavel and the Lotus is unique as it relies