Uttama Kirit Patel has been a semi-finalist in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, and she’s also been nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her debut novel concerns Lina who lives with her husband Ishaan and his parents in their opulent villa on one of Dubai’s artificial archipelago Palm Islands. Ishaan works with his dad in the diamond trade and isn’t short of cash – he was rich enough to book out an entire underwater restaurant to propose to Lina. Lina, however, certainly isn’t a “kept woman” – she works as a brand manager – and wants to find a place of her own away from Ishaan’s parents, especially “Aunty M”, his overbearing mother. Lina never wanted children, but when she falls pregnant she has decisions to make. The one thing that hasn’t changed however is her desire to leave, which now becomes greater than ever. Lina must also contend with the recent death of her beloved father as well as a whole bunch of skeletons that threaten to tumble from her familial cupboard. Kirit Patel has embraced her inner Jane Austen for this tale, which tackles the social mores of the wider Indian diaspora living in the UAE. It’s a patriarchal world, which, nevertheless, Lina is determined to kick against (“He counted work towards parenthood as overtime, requiring compensation. The idea that motherhood was assumed, yet active fatherhood remained a choice worthy of high praise, infuriated her.”). The pace occasionally drags, and it’s a little over-earnest in places, but ‘Shape of an Apostrophe’ is a fine exploration of womanhood in a world where men hold sway. RM

Published by Serpent’s Tail