Review by Erin Wilson

Revisiting Dhaka for his father’s property business and hopefully to write his book, life in Dhaka isn’t as straightforward as Nisar had expected. As he reconnects with his cousin Disha, who he embarrassingly admits he had a crush on his entire life, unravels the mysteries and truths of Dhaka’s wealthy social life.  Through various social events, he learns in a roundabout way about Disha’s marriage and divorce to the neighbor, Gazi, who also is trying to buy out his properties. These two, Gazi and Disha, although divorced, maintain a connection that no one in the peer group can figure out until Nisar starts to connect bits and pieces of their story. After confronting Disha of these gossips, she finally confesses the truth of a secret she and Gazi hold that binds them together. Meanwhile as Nisar navigates his social life, he is attempting to work on selling the family properties. What should feel like a fairly easy transaction, ends up becoming another twisting road of dead ends and confusion as the trusted Mr. Eshan uses smoke and mirrors to keep what he feels he’s earned. 

As you read this story through Nisar’s narrative, one will find that each turn of the page a new truth or gossip is shared and we must wait to see how Nisar decides who to trust. It is also a story of belonging and the question of where one’s home is. Although we enjoy the Dhaka elite’s lavish lives, the author provides glimpses of how everyone is equal to messy Dhaka through traffic jams of rickshaws and CNGs. It is the way Nadeem explains repeatedly how the wealthy handle these situations and can easily use their privilege and money to clear up any given situation. In the end, Nisar’s last thought, last sentence, sums up his contemplations of belonging, “We inherit the lineage we’re all born into, with its contradictions, with the very beautiful and the very ugly, neither of which we can have a hand in being able to change, and the past beats on, louder sometimes than the present, clearer than any visions of the future (247).”

Title Information:

The Inheritors by Nadeem Zaman, Hachette India, English, ISBN: 9789393701336, 2023

Additional Titles by Nadeem Zaman:

Author Bio:

Nadeem Zaman was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and grew up there and in Chicago. is the author of the novel In the Time of the Others, which was longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and a story collection, Up in the Main House. His fiction has appeared in numerous journals. He teaches in the English Department at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Reviewer Bio:

Erin Wilson currently works as a Teacher Librarian in Dhaka, Bangladesh and has worked internationally for 10 years in the following countries; China, India, and now Bangladesh. She has vast experience working in diverse cultures from Native American students to inner-city students and the international community. Her other passion lies in studying Asian dances. Currently she is focused on Odissi classical dance, and uses this dance vocabulary for storytelling in the library to actively engage children. It’s never boring in the library. 

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