“This is a lovely piece of work, comely in its appeal, confident in its address. It’s a work of love and longing and loss, and also of reconciliation and rejuvenation. In a voice that is completely assured of itself, Farzana Doctor weaves a tale of new and old immigrants in the impersonal and impervious megapolis that is Toronto.” -Herizon

Stealing Nasreenis a novel about the lives of three very different people, all of whom belong to the same small religious community. Set in Toronto with back story in Mumbai, Nasreen Bastawala, an Indo-Canadian lesbian and burnt-out psychologist, becomes enmeshed in the lives of Shaffiq and Salma Paperwala, new immigrants from Mumbai. While working in the same Toronto hospital as Nasreen, Shaffiq develops a persistent and confusing fascination with Nasreen, causing him to bring home and hide things he “finds” in her office. Salma, his wife, discovers some of these hidden treasures and suspects that something is amiss. Unbeknownst to Shaffiq, Nasreen begins attending weekly Gujarati classes taught by Salma, who finds herself inexplicably attracted to her student. This attraction harkens back memories and regrets Salma holds about a lesbian affair that ended badly years ago.

Nasreen has troubles of her own. She recently broke up with her cheating girlfriend and still has mixed feelings about her, and their relationship. She is also dealing with her father, who has become demanding and clingy ever since the death of her mother a couple of years before.

Without knowing that it is happening, Nasreen becomes the centre of Shaffiq and Salma’s lives. Each keeps a secret about Nasreen, and in so doing risks their marriage, while Nasreen struggles to come to terms with her mother’s death, her recent break-up, and her new relationship with her father. An impulsive kiss between Salma and Nasreen sets off a surprising course of events.

Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based Registered Social Worker who has been working with individuals and couples since 1993. As an activist, educator and writer, she has taught clinicians, co-written manuals for mental health providers and contributed chapters and articles about 2SLGBTQ+ issues, anti-oppression, self-care and female genital mutilation/cutting. She is the co-founder of WeSpeakOut and the End FGM Canada Network. She has written four critically acclaimed novels and a poetry collection.

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“Stealing Nasreen creates an extraordinary degree of intimacy by juxtaposing sensory detail—“the air holds memories of thousands of meals cooked here, hints of cumin mixed expertly with tumeric, coriander, and chili”—with the probing self-reflections of the central characters”

“Verdict: This is a lovely piece of work, comely in its appeal, confident in its address. It’s a work of love and longing and loss, and also of reconciliation and rejuvenation. In a voice that is completely assured of itself, Farzana Doctor weaves a tale of new and old immigrants in the impersonal and impervious megapolis that is Toronto.”

”The process of leaving one’s country and finding a sense of belonging in another is often rife with uncertainty and turmoil. What makes Stealing Nasreen such a riveting read is the way it takes this uncertainty and makes it even more complex by adding sexuality and desire to the angst-filled immigrant experience. Stealing Nasreen reveals the intricacies of human relationships, but more importantly, it is an eye-opening critique of the multicultural dream. The Paperwalas exist apart from a mainstream society that sees them as anonymous Indian immigrants. These characters challenge anonymity as they work through their own unique needs and wants… In the end, these characters discover that belonging is a continuous and maddening act of reaching for the elusive.”

“Farzana Doctor’s first novel offers a study in linked solitudes and secrets. Shaffiq Paperwala is an educated young man from India who, lacking a Canadian degree, is relegated to janitorial work in a Toronto psychiatric hospital. Nasreen Bastawala, a psychologist in the hospital, encounters him at the end of each work day as he begins his shift…What has stayed with me are the unerring interior dramas: Shaffiq despairing for his family’s future; Nasreen, in a trance of sadness, hovering near the edge of a subway platform; Salma thinking with sweet regret of Raj, her lost Mumbai lover.”

”There’s an awful lot going on in Farzana Doctor’s fascinating first novel, Stealing Nasreen. Touching on themes of grief, desire and assimilation, Doctor lays out an ambitious array of characters and dilemmas and, for the most part, pulls them together with admirable skill…A terrific touch comes via an erotically tinged painting of a rani and her servant that hangs in their home. The rani’s expression seems to change depending on whether she’s expressing amusement or disdain for the secrets the two must conceal…you can tell from reading Stealing Nasreen that the author knows a lot about life. This unique contribution to CanLit probes the problems and joys of creating an open, diverse society.”