‘An experience that can’t be submerged by loss’: Why Fauzia Rafique has written a migration novel

In her most recent novel, Keeru, the South-Asian-Canadian novelist and poet Fauzia Rafique brings to life characters and narratives from South Asia navigating love and community across caste, class, gender, and sexuality. It has been translated from the Punjabi by Haider Shahbaz.

In the novel, Muhammad Hussain Khan “Keeru” – named after insects – has come a long way since Pakistan, where he was hounded for his caste, and almost beaten to death on false charges of blasphemy. Having escaped to Canada, he is the owner of a small business, but the past has an inexorable habit of haunting him even in the present.

Told from the perspectives of five characters, each tormented by their past and desperately in pursuit of a home, Keeru tells queer and feminist stories as it overturns familiar tropes about migration and family. The novel is a celebration of resilience and our power to find family, love and hope – sometimes a world away.

In a conversation with Scroll, the author spoke of her work’s relationship with language, literary archives, and the diaspora. Excerpts from the interview:

Your work stands out particularly for its resonance with reality. We see it so closely in Keeru. It is grounded with references to social, legal, and cultural events in...

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