Talking with Boys

Talking with Boys is an astonishing story collection that spans decades and is set in various locales, including Houston, Lahore, and Dubai. With deep insight and humor, Tayyba Kanwal explores the diverse range of the Pakistani and Pakistani American experience, as well as the complexities of a Muslim identity. Readers are introduced to a big cast of rich and memorable characters, many of whom are navigating new beginnings and places. Whether writing about family dynamics, generational conflicts, immigration, socioeconomic class, and notions of home and belonging, among other themes, Kanwal’s stories speak to the human condition with breathtaking power. A remarkable debut.

– Ghassan Zeineddine, author of Dearborn

An intimate collection of stories, Talking with Boys spans time and place while depicting a group of souls who are determined, hilarious, and complex. Kanwal knows this world better than anyone, which is why the collection is consistently full of provocation and delight. This book is the introduction of an exciting new literary voice that readers will be sure to enjoy.

– Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters

There is something wonderfully disarming about all the people in these stories. Kanwal narrates their lives in sentences that are poignant, their plans, faults and longing always at the center, their utter humanness laid out on the pages.

– Farah Ali, author of The River, The Town

Talking with Boys is a magical and riveting collection that will make you reassess what you know about the three very different worlds in which the stories are set. Kanwal’s agile, multifaceted characters are at once hilarious and heartbreaking. They’ll shock you and infuriate you and amaze you. They’ll linger in your imagination long after you’ve turned the last page.

– Chitra Divakaruni, American Book Award-winning author of Independence and Mistress of Spices