A PLACE FOR US transports readers back to the beginning of a family’s life: from the bonds that bring them together, to the differences that pull them apart. All the joy and struggle of family life is in its pages, from the mother and father’s own arrival in America from India, to the years in which their children—each in their own way—tread between two cultures, seeking to find their place in the world, as well as a path home. [caption id="attachment_114770" align="alignright" width="261"] Fatima Farheen Mizra photo by Gregg Richards[/caption] Ms. Mirza: “I began writing this novel when I was a freshman in college, and it was my love for the characters—Layla, Rafiq, Hadia, and Amar, members of a single family—that committed me to the project. I was interested in exploring what it means when to be loyal to oneself is to betray the home you have come from, the bond between siblings as well as their betrayals, and the decisions that each character makes that determines not only their own destiny, but also the lives of their loved ones. After working on the novel for eight years, I could not be happier with the home it has found. Speaking with Sarah Jessica Parker and Lindsay Sagnette and seeing the care and enthusiasm they bring to their books has been deeply comforting. I’m confident in their vision for the novel and grateful that it will be brought into the world by SJP for Hogarth.” Here is a sampling of praise this buzz-worthy book and author have earned:

• “Ambitious… a family epic that is textured and keenly felt… Mirza draws Amar’s lifelong struggle with the concept of unconditional devotion so poignantly that readers will find it exceedingly relatable. But so too is the mysterious whisper in his ear urging him always to return, no matter how far he strays, back home.” – The New York Times Book Review
• “Mirza, 27, is about to become a star…The debut author brings us the thinking person’s summer read, a rich and layered tale about family and assimilation.” — Entertainment Weekly “
• "It is absolutely gorgeous… Mirza writes about family life with the wisdom, insight and patience you would expect from a mature novelist adding a final masterpiece to her canon, but this is, fortunately, just the start of an extraordinary career.” – The Washington Post
• “An affecting, authentic and artful debut by Fatima Farheen Mirza…The novel is deeply moving and surprisingly insightful. Mirza's writing is poignantly beautiful.” – Associated Press
• “The book dives into the lives of a Muslim-American family, opening on the eve of the eldest daughter’s marriage, and examines the intricacies of a family straddling two very different cultures.” — Vanity Fair
• “Fatima Farheen Mirza’s A PLACE FOR US is everything I love about family sagas. It traverses time and place, explores the conflicts between a parent’s expectation and a child’s desires, and, most importantly, introduces us to fully imagined, flawed characters whose relationships are deep, entangled, and rich in love. The story — which centers on an American Muslim family navigating the tension between tradition and autonomy — is told in fragments, jumping from one character to another, slowly adding layers to scenes by revisiting interactions from multiple perspectives. And Mirza renders this family with a gentle hand, lovingly, so that each character will make their way into your heart.” — Buzzfeed

 

“Jonathan Miles is a great American storyteller, a writer to celebrate with a new novel easily devoured" said Ms. Parker. “His tender, life-affirming ANATOMY OF A MIRACLE follows paraplegic veteran Cameron Harris and his sister Tanya after Cameron suddenly regains the ability to walk. The story in these pages is astoundingly joyous and deeply humane, and I can’t wait to share it with you all as the new selection for Book Club Central.” [caption id="attachment_9952" align="alignright" width="244"] Jonathan Miles[/caption] Johnathan Miles is also the author of the novels Dear American Airlines and Want Not, both New York Times Notable Books. He is a former columnist for The New York Times and has served as a contributing editor to magazines ranging from Details to Field & Stream. His journalism has been frequently anthologized in Best American Sports Writing and Best American Crime Writing. He is also the author of a book on fish and game cookery, The Wild Chef. Jonathan Miles“Jorge Luis Borges imagined heaven as a kind of library, and I wholeheartedly subscribe to that gorgeous vision,” said Mr. Miles. “Libraries have long been the seed banks for my imagination, so I’m humbled and thrilled that Sarah Jessica Parker and the ALA have chosen ANATOMY OF A MIRACLE  as their Book Club Central selection.” In a starred review, Booklist called ANATOMY OF A MIRACLE “Vibrant, bustling, and humorous… Cleverly shaped as a journalistic report, and told in a style similar to that of John Jeremiah Sullivan and Ron Currie, Miles’ tale offers a nuanced and endlessly entertaining exploration of the age-old debate between faith and reason.” Kirkus said “Miles possesses a rare and admirable command of structure and style, shifting smoothly from Afghan patrol tactics to Catholic doctrine to neurological science; his sentences are thick with data, wittily delivered. … An expertly shaped tale about faith in collision with contemporary American culture.” Ms. Parker’s previous picks for Book Club Central have been No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts, EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid and STAY WITH ME by Ayobami Adebayo. In addition to being honorary chair of Book Club Central, Ms. Parker is an Honorary Lifetime Board Member of United for Libraries, a division of ALA, a role she is using to raise awareness about the integral role of Friends groups in the library. Book Club Central, designed in consultation with expert librarians, provides the public with the very best in reading and is a place for engaging content and information for book clubs and readers everywhere. Book Club Central Sponsoring Partners are Booklist, the book review magazine of the ALA; United for Libraries, a division of the ALA; and Libraries Transform, the ALA’s public awareness campaign, along with Corporate Platinum Partner Penguin Random House. Corporate Gold Partners include NoveList, OverDrive, and Sisters in Crime.

“Libraries have always been places of comfort and discovery for me, so I'm especially delighted that STAY WITH ME is Sarah Jessica Parker's pick for this American Library Association initiative,” said Ms. Adebayo. “STAY WITH ME is a wise and deeply humane debut novel that unpeels the layers of politics in a marriage from the inside,” says Ms. Parker. “Ayobami Adebayo tells the story of Akin, Yejide, and their families – a powerfully affecting tale of love, loyalty, and betrayal – with both savagery and heart. I can’t wait for readers everywhere to read and enjoy this novel as our third selection for Book Club Central.” In addition to being honorary chair of Book Club Central, Ms. Parker is an Honorary Lifetime Board Member of United for Libraries, a division of ALA, a role she is using to raise awareness about the integral role of Friends groups in the library.  Ms. Parker’s SJP Book Club is thrilled to announce a limited-edition tote bag to help support libraries, now available exclusively for the holiday season from Out of Print.  A portion of  the proceeds will be donated to United for Libraries. Book Club Central (www.bookclubcentral.org), designed in consultation with expert librarians, provides the public with the very best in reading. Book Club Central debuted this past summer and since that time has become a place for engaging content and information for book clubs and readers everywhere. Ms. Parker’s previous picks for Book Club Central have been No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts, and EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid. Ms. Parker recently launched SJP for Hogarth, which will selectively publish high-quality works of fiction by both established writers and distinctive emerging voice with critical and commercial promise. SJP for Hogarth’s first acquisition is A PLACE FOR US, a debut novel by Fatima Mirza to be published in 2018. Ms. Parker is the star and executive producer of Divorce, which will return for a second season in January 2018.

Ms. Parker’s second book selection for Book Club Central will be part of the kickoff of the 12^th annual National Friends of Libraries Week, an initiative of United for Libraries to be held October 15-21, 2017. The celebration recognizes the advocacy and fundraising efforts of Friends of the Library groups across the country. Ms. Parker is an Honorary Lifetime Board Member of United for Libraries, a division of ALA. “United for Libraries is excited to feature Sarah Jessica Parker’s pick, EXIT WEST, as part of National Friends of Libraries Week,” said United for Libraries President Steve Laird, president of the Reference Division of Infogroup. “Friends groups do so much on behalf of their libraries, from funding summer reading programs to hosting author events and sponsoring book clubs. As a board member of United for Libraries and honorary chair of Book Club Central, Sarah Jessica Parker is raising awareness about the integral role of Friends groups in the library.” Book Club Central, designed in consultation with expert librarians, provides the public with the very best in reading. It debuted this past summer and since that time has become a place for engaging content and helpful information for book clubs and readers everywhere. [caption id="attachment_8059" align="alignleft" width="243"] Mohsin Hamid[/caption] Ms. Parker said, “Mohsin Hamid's EXIT WEST gives a deeply real, beautiful, intricate and electrifying look at what it means to be an immigrant right now. This tale of two people forced from their homeland and searching for a home elsewhere is transporting and illuminating. I was swept away by this gorgeous, otherworldly novel and I'm so excited to offer it as our second selection for Book Club Central, as I'm convinced every reader will feel the same.” As honorary chair of ALA’s Book Club Central, Ms. Parker will make her next book selection this winter. Ms. Parker’s inaugural pick for Book Club Central was No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts. “I might not have become an avid reader in my childhood if it were not for the libraries where I spent countless hours, and so I might not have become a writer either,” said Mr. Hamid. “I owe libraries a great deal. I am honored that Sarah Jessica Parker and the ALA have chosen EXIT WEST.” EXIT WEST is a timely love story that imagines the forces that transform ordinary people into refugees — and the impossible choices that follow — as they’re driven from their homes to the uncertain embrace of new lands. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, this book tells a story of love, loyalty and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times wrote, “Writing in spare, crystalline prose, Hamid conveys the experience of living in a city under siege with sharp, stabbing immediacy.” In a starred review, Booklist stated, “Caught in the whirlpool of refugees from around the world, Saeed and Nadia are tossed around like flotsam, the necessity of survival binding them together more than any starry-eyed notion of romance ever could…spellbinding writing.” The New York Review of Books wrote, “Skillful and panoramic from the outset… [A] meticulously crafted, ambitious story of many layers, many geopolitical realities, many lives and circumstances.” Ms. Parker launched SJP for Hogarth in partnership with Molly Stern, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Crown, Hogarth, Broadway, Crown Archetype, and Three Rivers Press. SJP for Hogarth will selectively publish high-quality works of fiction by both established writers and distinctive emerging voice with critical and commercial promise. In this role, Ms. Parker will be involved in all aspects of the publication process, from their selection and acquisition to cover design and promotion with her vision providing the editorial foundation for each publication. SJP for Hogarth’s first acquisition is  A PLACE FOR US, a debut novel by Fatima Mirza to be published in 2018. For more information, visit www.bookclubcentral.org and for SJP for Hogarth: www.sjpforhogarth.com

acquired the novel from Jin Auh of The Wylie Agency, LLC. Tentatively titled A PLACE FOR US, it will be published in 2019. Ms. Parker will be supported on this project by Lindsay Sagnette, Editorial Director of Fiction for Crown and Hogarth, who will edit. News of this acquisition was revealed in The New York Times this morning. To read the NYT article, click here. Said Ms. Parker, “To be taken hostage by Fatima Mirza’s heartrending and timely story is a gutting pleasure. It allows her reader to better understand what it means to reconcile one’s love of family and culture with a desire to find one’s own path, and one’s own faith. Ms. Mirza painstakingly details the life of an Indian Muslim family in America and their children’s search to feel whole, fulfilled, and content. She captures your mind and heart with an urgency that defies you to stop reading. I guarantee you will be different when you close the book.” Ms. Mirza’s debut unfolds within the lives of an Indian Muslim family in California, on the eve of the eldest daughter’s wedding.  As Hadia’s marriage—one of love, not tradition—gathers the family back together, her parents Rafiq and Layla must come to terms with the choices that their two daughters, and their estranged son Amar, have made. Written with compassion and cultural insight, A PLACE FOR US a poignant portrait of a family caught between two cultures, and a resonant story of faith, tradition, identity, and belonging in contemporary America, from a gifted young storyteller. Said Ms. Mirza, “I began writing this novel when I was a freshman in college, and it was my love for the characters—Layla, Rafiq, Hadia, and Amar, members of a single family—that committed me to the project. I was interested in exploring what it means when to be loyal to oneself is to betray the home you have come from, the bond between siblings as well as their betrayals, and the decisions that each character makes that determines not only their own destiny, but also the lives of their loved ones. After working on the novel for eight years, I could not be happier with the home it has found. Speaking with Sarah Jessica Parker and Lindsay Sagnette and seeing the care and enthusiasm they bring to their books has been deeply comforting. I’m confident in their vision for the novel and grateful that it will be brought into the world by SJP for Hogarth.” Ms. Mirza is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow. She has taught creative writing and fiction courses at the University of Iowa and at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Awarded the Michener-Copernicus Fellowship in 2016 and The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research/Creative Achievement from the University of California, Riverside, she has also received residencies from The Marble House Project and The MacDowell Colony. In other Sarah Jessica Parker news: The American Library Association (ALA) officially launched Book Club Central with the unveiling of its website and Honorary Chair Sarah Jessica Parker’s inaugural book selection, No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts. Ms. Parker made the announcement during the ALA’s Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago at McCormick Place, June 22-27, 2017.  Book Club Central, a brand-new initiative of the ALA, was designed in consultation with expert librarians to provide the public with the very best in reading.