The Lovers & the Leavers
By Abeer Y. Hoque
Blurb :
“You know when you’re hungry
and you want some rice?
Well, before you eat, there is
love. It comes even before
your hunger.”
Komola is a maid from rural Bangladesh working in Dhaka. Before You Eat is the beginning of her love story with a handsome mysterious man, which continues ominously in After the Love. In Alo, Komola’s nephew is a preternaturally gifted little boy with a terrible secret. The older son of her employers crashes and burns in The Beauty of Belonging, while the younger, Tahsin, falls for an American woman in Wax Doll.
Over the course of twelve stories, the Lovers and the Leavers visits characters whose lives intersect over the years and continents. It’s about the ways we build each other up and break ourselves down, no matter who we are, where we live, or whether we know better.
Bio :
Abeer Hoque is a Nigerian born Bangladeshi American writer and photographer. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a 2012 NEA Literature Fellowship and a 2007 Fulbright Scholarship. In 2013, after 7 years on the road, she published a coffee table book of travel photographs and poems entitled The Long Way Home (Ogro Publishing Bangladesh). Her writing and photography have been published in Guernica, ZYZZYVA, Wasafiri, the Daily Star, India Today, and the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, among others. She has BS and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and an MFA in writing from the University of San Francisco.
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