In an unnamed English town Jungu and his lover Chanda have disappeared. Rumours abound in the close-knit Pakistani community, and then on a snow-covered January morning Chanda's brothers are arrested for murder. Telling the story over the next twelve months, Maps for Lost Lovers opens the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses both their joys and their pain in a language that is arrestingly poetic.

At the heart of this extraordinary novel lies the character of Kaukab, a wife and mother increasingly out of touch with those she loves most: her homeland, her husband and her three increasingly estranged and westernised children. Her faith in her religion and family is her only support. The disappearance of her brother-in-law Jugnu and his lover Chanda and their suspected murder forms the dramatic backdrop for a year of turmoil in the life of Kaukab's splintering family.

'Maps for Lost Lovers' was longlisted for The Man Bookers Prize 2004 and won the 2005 Kiriyama Prize.

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