An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Best Book of the Month (ABC News, GMA.com, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Ms. Magazine, BookRiot, PopSugar, The A.V. Club)
On a January morning in 1938, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan in his family's ittar shop in Lahore. Over the years that follow, the perfumer's apprentice and calligrapher's apprentice fall in love, dreaming of the life they will one day share. But as the struggle for Indian independence gathers force, their city is ravaged by Partition. Suddenly, they find themselves on opposite sides: Samir, a Hindu, becomes Indian and Firdaus, a Muslim, becomes Pakistani, their love now forbidden. Severed from one another, Samir and Firdaus make a series of fateful decisions that will change the course of their lives forever.