Dur e Aziz Amna - American Fever: A Novel

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

Copyright 2022 by Dur e Aziz Amna

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Arcade Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or arcade@skyhorsepublishing.com.

Arcade Publishing is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.arcadepub.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Erin Seaward-Hiatt

ISBN: 978-1-950994-49-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-950994-50-2

Printed in the United States of America

OceanofPDF.com

A DVANCE P RAISE FOR

A MERICAN F EVER

This is a funny and affecting novel, understated but powerful, a wonderful new spin on the coming-of-age story.

Kirkus Reviews (STARRED)

Brave, tender-hearted, and painfully bittersweet, American Fever announces Dur e Aziz Amna as a brilliant new voice.

Fatima Farheen Mirza, bestselling author of A Place for Us

In this sharply observed twist on the classic coming-to-America story, we find an America recognizable in all its generosity, cruelty, and sometimes-well-intentioned bumbling. And we find a brilliant exploration of the sacred, scary moment when a girl comes into the wider world.

Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Sontag: Her Life and Work

Dur e Aziz Amna has hit on a brilliant means of defamiliarizing the immigrant novel: exploring the liminal experiencenot quite settler, not quite expatriateof the foreign exchange student. Hiras razor-sharp observations of the US and Pakistantheir faiths, politics, culturehave the bold truth-telling power of both innocence and experience.

Peter Ho Davies, bestselling author of The Welsh Girl

Dur e Aziz Amna navigates the choppy waters of adolescence with blistering insight and humor, and exquisitely captures the way we can long for home while yearning to escape it. American Fever dazzled me on every page.

Julie Buntin, author of Marlena

Hiras is a voice I wont soon forget; her biting intelligence, her irreverence, and her wit blazes through this riveting, brilliant novel which stuns in its insights. A searing debut.

Aamina Ahmad, author of The Return of Faraz Ali

American Fever is a fresh, fierce bildungsromana story of homesickness and adolescent ache, not to mention a biting meta-commentary on what we expect from immigrant narratives.

Sanjena Sathian, bestselling author of Gold Diggers

American Fever is an extraordinarily assured and gripping debut. The intelligence, humour and longing of Hiras voice, as she negotiates what it means to belong to a place, will stay with me.

Ayegl Sava, author of Walking on the Ceiling

Dur e Aziz Amnas American Fever is a loving and unflinching exploration of home and homeland, the ways they make and unmake us, how they feed us and also eat away our insides. Amnas crystalline prose reflects and refracts, dazzles and captivates.

Nawaaz Ahmed, author of Radiant Fugitives

Hira is a marvellous creation American Fever marks the arrival of a hugely promising writer.

Mirza Waheed, author of The Collaborator

Charming, fearless, and politically aware, American Fever is a novel that will stay with you for a long time.

Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of All This Could Be Different

What an utterly hypnotic, witty and brilliant novel. Dur e Aziz Amnas virtuosic way with language kept me enthralled the whole way through. This book is a necessary next-leveling of diasporic consciousness, the unraveling of borders between homeland and newfound home that happens inside of us.

Tanas, author of In Sensorium: Notes For My People

OceanofPDF.com

For Ammi and Abbu

OceanofPDF.com

Raat yoon dil mein teri khoyi hui yaad aayi

Jaise veerane mein chupke se bahar aa jaye

Jaise sehraon mein hole se chale baad-e-naseem

Jaise beemar ko bevajah qarar aa jaye

Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Nuskha Hae Wafa

Intimacy be it of hatred or of love, can be defined as confident, quasi-immediate translation.

George Steiner, After Babel

Kujh shehr de lok vi zalam san

Kujh sanoon maran da shauq vi si

Munir Niazi, Safar Di Raat

OceanofPDF.com

Contents

OceanofPDF.com

January

B y God, I had planned to keep it to myself and God. But then the sheets speckle red. Blood, like pomegranate jewels, spots the pillowcase.

Its the night of Kellys wedding. The Pacific Northwest has received a flurry of snow, and as I get out of bed to gargle away the metal from my mouth, I wonder how the drops of red will look on the pristine white of the patio. I wonder if the blood means the disease is now severe, even lethal. Mostly, I wonder how much of this is Americas doing.

In the morning, I go out to the living room, where Kelly and Ethan are nursing their coffees, clearly hungover. I tell Kelly she has to take me to the doctor. She still has mascara on from last night.

Can this wait, Hira?

I shake my head, tell her it must be today, and my host mothers face sets into annoyance, which is doubly unfortunate because she and I shared a tender moment last night, the kind of thing that has become a rarity of late. This must not be how she and Ethan planned to spend the first morning of their marriage, but I cant drive and she is the adult in charge, so this is how it has to be.

In the car ride to the doctors, I try to make conversation, telling her I had a great time attending my first American wedding. Kelly loves it when I posit myself as a virgin to America, so that cheers her up a bit. I also mention that I spoke with Ali on the phone after the party.

So are you two dating now?

He lives in New York. Im going back to Pakistan in five months.

Yes, but life is long, she says. And youre smart. Ill be shocked if you dont find your way back to America.

Youre assuming I want to.

See, thats my problem. Kellys doing me a favor by driving me around the day after her wedding. Why cant I keep my mouth shut?

Well, she says, frowning. They do say its the land of opportunity.

Kelly lives in rural Oregon, where the state of opportunity is such that I havent been able to find an afterschool job in five months. But its 2011, America is still king of the world, the cool guys in the White House, and Kelly cant comprehend the rest of the world not clamoring for these shores.

I just hope you see your own potential, she continues. If you remain in Pakistan, Ill always worry about your safety.

Again, its 2011 and Americans are worried about everyone elses safety, sated in the knowledge that their nook of the world is far safer than elsewhere, although dont tell them why that might be. History is what happens in other places. America transcends it. This will all change, but at the time I can merely nod.