The Cloud Messenger — Aamer Hussein

"A thing of beauty. . . . You must read it." -- Nadeem Aslam

"A shower of pleasures." -- Julia O'Faolain

"Sophisticated, cosmopolitan and seductive, the novel engages mind and senses alike." -- André Naffis-Sahely, The Times Literary Supplement

Like his parents, he too spent many hours sending cloud messages to other places, messages of longing for something that he knew existed otherwhere.

London, that distant rainy place his father lived in once, is where Mehran finds himself after leaving Karachi in his teens. And it is there that his adult life unfolds: he discovers the joys of poetry, faces the trials of love and work, and spends his dreaming hours "sending cloud messages to other places," hoping, one day, to tell his own story.

A feeling of not quite belonging anywhere pursues Mehran as he travels to Italy, India, and Pakistan. But the relationships he forms -- with wounded, passionate Marvi, volatile Marco, and the enigmatic Riccarda -- and his power of recollection finally bring him some sense, however fleeting, of home.

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in his teens. He lectures at the University of Southampton and the Institute of English Studies and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His novella Another Gulmohar Tree was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Europe and South Asia 2010.