{"id":22126,"date":"2026-05-08T16:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/?page_id=22126"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:07:11","slug":"jasmeen-a-siddiqui","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/jasmeen-a-siddiqui\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasmeen A. Siddiqui"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jasmeen A. Siddiqui is a writer from Mississauga, Ontario who currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The First After<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Random House Canada, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From the Penguin Random House Canada website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Anaa, a twenty-three-year-old aspiring poet, has fallen in love with her new life in Portugal. Walking cobblestone streets and talking about art with her new friends\u2014this is what she\u2019s always dreamed of, and she feels she\u2019s on her way to becoming the person she wants to be. And it doesn\u2019t hurt that there\u2019s someone making Lisbon even more alluring: a magnetic poet and local celebrity, Tiago, with whom she\u2019s having the kinds of spirited, all-consuming conversations she\u2019s only ever seen in films she adores.

Just as Tiago wants to commit to Anaa, Anaa’s ex-boyfriend and first love, Ben, visits from Canada, propelling her into a state of restlessness. Though she and Ben had planned his visit together, with Anaa moralizing about how outdated and reductive it would be to give up on their friendship just because they\u2019re exes, she can\u2019t quite reconcile Ben in Lisbon among her new friends. She\u2019d purposely left behind a world that felt small, a future that was a fraction of what she wanted for herself, the future that included Ben. However, even while embarrassed by his simple tastes and dad jokes, she still recognizes he\u2019s someone who can make her feel so much joy and who brings out a side of herself she tends to hide. And there might be something else there between them, something still burning. But then what about Tiago and the part of her that comes alive with him? And more importantly, what about her new world?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Penguin Random House Canada<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jasmeen A. Siddiqui is a writer from Mississauga, Ontario who currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal. Fiction The First After Toronto: Random House Canada, 2026. Publisher’s Synopsis (From the Penguin Random House Canada website) Anaa, a twenty-three-year-old aspiring poet, has fallen … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22126","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22126"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22131,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22126\/revisions\/22131"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}