Imagine a world where gender is not binary but fluid, where identity transcends societal norms and expectations, and where humanity confronts its deepest prejudices about what it means to be a man, a woman or someone in between. Queen Zarqa by Hayat Roghaani, masterfully translated from Pashto to Urdu by Gohar Rehman Naveed and then from Urdu to English by Shama Askari, is a groundbreaking novel. It follows the journey of Zeerak Khan, a khawaja sara, as he transforms into Zarqa and finds acceptance among a community of transgender individuals in Karachi. With profound empathy, Roghaani explores themes of identity, belonging, and the universal human need for love and dignity. The story provides an intimate window into Pakistan’s marginalised transgender community while touching on broader issues of religious fundamentalism, political corruption and societal hypocrisy.

The narrative of My Friend Maya centres on the complex friendship between two young women, Maya and Sehar, who crossed paths in their twenties. Maya is adventurous and feisty with a rebellious approach to life, while Sehar is calm and pragmatic, living her life according to an austere moral and ethical code. Their close bond, rooted in trauma, evolves into a tumultuous relationship marked by emotional turmoil and startling revelations. Sehar soon realises that there is more to Maya than her charming exterior. Their relationship gradually spirals into an abyss of deceit, manipulation and guilt. The story explores themes of narcissism, mental illness and substance abuse set in the 1990s Karachi, highlighting societal taboos and challenges faced by women. It addresses the stigma surrounding mental health and its impact on personal relationships.

The year is 151 BCE. Agnimitra, a prince from the Shunga dynasty, living in Vidisha in ancient India, falls in love with Iravati. It ends tragically, and the guilt-ridden prince falls into a pool of water to find himself in a strange place known as the land of myths. In these lands, he encounters mythical characters, from ancient Greece and Mesopotamia to ancient India who, with their ‘more-than-true’ stories, often showing a commonality of themes and motifs across cultures, force him to ask deeper questions about himself. His quest takes him to present-day Karachi, Pakistan, where he meets Tamana. As they become friends, Agnimitra and Tamana learn to navigate the murky waters of inherited certainties, intolerance, the limits of knowledge, especially of the distant past and the power of myths.

For rash, awkward Gaythi, there is always something amiss. Daughter of an extensive and wealthy Muslim upper-class family in pre-Partition India, she’s expected to be demure, have poise and grow willingly into the roles of mother and wife. Gaythi does not know what she wants but she’s certainly not keen to settle for less than what she believes in. A series of tragic and unexpected events suddenly threaten to split her home as well as her country. Exile follows and Gaythi is forced to assume responsibility for her haughty and powerful mother. Touchingly and with carefully-crafted detail, Altaf Fatima describes the impact of change on the lives of an entire people. A parallel narrative runs through the novel, the relationship of Gaythi and Safdar Liu Chu, a Chinese immigrant who was forced to come to the subcontinent in search of livelihood. The brutal, stony divide of the Himalayas which partitioned two ancient cultures, although both Gaythi and Safdar Liu Chu share the same religion, has been dealt with delicately and realistically.