I Left You Behind

Spanning several decades and three countries, these enchanting short stories dwell unsentimentally on shifting homes and lost ancestral homelands, distant memories and fragmented family ties. Largely inspired by the author’s own life experiences, they depict close parental bonds, poignant encounters, tragedies and personal triumphs.

Injustice, the importance of education and a love of literature are recurring themes in the more autobiographical stories. At the age of thirteen in Pakistan ＂the girl＂ is forced to learn to read the Quran, without understanding its verses until adulthood. During a school year spent in Texas, she witnesses the ugly realities of American racism and segregation. At university in Pakistan, she visits a teenaged royal bride who is forced to observe purdah, to whom she later sends samples of classical English fiction, in the hope of inspiring her, and being a comfort and an inspiration. Years later, she visits her former philosophy professor at Oxford, with whom she shares her decision to become a writer.

These are stories of dislocation, relocation, and longing, evoking the physical and mental isolation made so tangible during the Covid pandemic. Rich in dialogue and description, the sixteen stories are Persian carpets, interwoven with numerous threads to produce a vivid tapestry of lives lived.

Nazneen Sheikh was born in Kashmir and went to school in Pakistan and Texas. She has written three titles for young adult audiences: Camels Can Make You Homesick and Other Stories (1985); Heartbreak High (1988); and Lucy and Time of My Life for the Degrassi television series (1989). She has also written several books of adult fiction and non-fiction including Chopin People (1994); Ice Bangles (1988); and most recently Moon Over Marrakech (2010), and The Place of Shining Light (2016). Her culinary memoir, Tea and Pomegranates: A Memoir of Food, Family and Kashmir (2005), won second place in the English and French special interest food and beverage book category from Cuisine Canada and the University of Guelph. She lives in Toronto.