Zen
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
MY THOUGHTS
I finished reading Zen, put it down, and had to look at the clock to find my bearings. I had read the last 300 pages almost in a stupor — hungrily turning the pages, blocking every other sound and sensation around me. I think at some point my kids said good night, but Zen, Yash, Abha, and Zainab demanded my attention and had it completely.
This YA tome has been a revelation — the art of bringing together intergenerational conflict with the rich history of South Mumbai; interspersing that with Indian current affairs and showing its effects on the youth and then adding a dash of romance and skillfully making it appeal to both simpering millennials (like me) and Gen Z — it is nothing short of an unimaginable feat yet, Shabnam Minwalla does it effortlessly. The story revolves around Zen (Zainab Currimji), a young girl navigating school, family, and attention from a boy in 2019. It is also about Zainab Essaji (Zen’s great-grandmother), a girl from the Bohra community living in South Mumbai, on the cusp of getting married. India is in the throes of the Swaraj movement, and she plays her part in it while falling in love with a Hindu freedom fighter. The interlacing of the lives of both Zainabs, set against the backdrop of events in their respective time periods, forms the major narrative of the story.
The characters will continue to live in your mind rent-free. Both the Zainabs, of course, but the others as well. Obnoxious but impossible not to love, Yash. Abha and Zen reminded me of my sister and me, loved spunky Menka, Faultless Fatema, Tejal, and were able to identify so many Deepak Desais lurking around family groups. Each epigraph will force you to test your pop culture knowledge. The city of Mumbai becomes a beloved multifaceted character. Zainab Essaji’s story transports you to a Bombay where oxblood red skeins of yarn were sold and revolutionaries plotted Swaraj among Cotton Green warehouses.
Please go get yourself a copy of this book; everyone must read and when they put it down, experience the Zen-shaped hole it will leave behind.
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