{"id":9586,"date":"2018-08-21T13:54:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T17:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/?page_id=9586"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:10:22","slug":"uzma-jalaluddin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/uzma-jalaluddin\/","title":{"rendered":"Uzma Jalaluddin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Uzma Jalaluddin is a secondary school teacher who grew up in the Scarborough area of Toronto and now lives in Markham, Ontario. She used to write a popular column for the Toronto Star<\/em> about modern Muslim life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Ayesha at Last: A Novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: HarperAvenue, 2018.
PS8619 .A38 A94 2018<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ayesha Shamsi has a lot <\/em>going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn’t want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a surprise engagement between Khalid and Hafsa is announced, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and his family; and the truth she realizes about herself. But Khalid is also wrestling with what he believes and what he wants. And he just can’t get this beautiful, outspoken woman out of his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2018 The Globe 100 (Globe and Mail<\/em>, 1 Dec. 2018)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Detective Aunty: A Novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: HarperCollins, 2025.
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Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After her husband\u2019s unexpected death twelve months earlier, Kausar Khan never thought she\u2019d receive another phone call as heartbreaking\u2014until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say she\u2019s been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembers has changed. The murder of Sana\u2019s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes that have gone unsolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the facts of the case are troubling: Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged into his chest. But Kausar\u2014a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by life experience\u2014senses there\u2019s more to the story than her daughter is sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar could not have predicted the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way . . .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Hana Khan Carries On<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

HarperAvenue, 2021.
PS8619.A38 H36 2021<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners. But soon she\u2019ll need all the support she can get: a new competing restaurant, a more upscale halal place, is about to open in the Golden Crescent, threatening Three Sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When her mysterious aunt and her teenage cousin arrive from India for a surprise visit, they draw Hana into a long-buried family secret. A hate-motivated attack on their neighbourhood complicates the situation further, as does Hana\u2019s growing attraction for Aydin, the young owner of the rival restaurant\u2014who might not be a complete stranger after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As life on the Golden Crescent unravels, Hana must learn to use her voice, draw on the strength of her community and decide what her future should be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Moonlight Murder: A Detective Aunty Novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: HarperCollins, 2026.
Forthcoming March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When Kausar Khan decided to move back to Toronto to be closer to her family, she didn\u2019t expect to have another murder investigation on her hands so soon\u2013or rather, she didn\u2019t expect to have another murder investigation on her hands ever<\/em>. But when a young man named Mateen is found dead in their Golden Crescent neighborhood, and when it turns out Mateen was close with Kausar\u2019s granddaughter, Maleeha, what\u2019s a grandmother to do but try to solve the case? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not just a devastated Maleeha that is spurring Kausar on to find answers; it\u2019s also how much the circumstances of Mateen\u2019s death remind her of her own teenage son, Ali, and his mysterious death nearly twenty years before. Kausar knows firsthand what a difference closure could make to a grieving parent\u2013and the more she seeks to find that for Mateen\u2019s parents, the more she begins to realize that perhaps it\u2019s time she find it for herself as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kausar conducts parallel investigations into both Mateen\u2019s and Ali\u2019s deaths and her \u201caunty\u201d skills continue to bring information to light, she can\u2019t help but wonder if the similarities in the two cases are more than just mere coincidence\u2013but how could two deaths, twenty years apart, possibly be related? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Much Ado About Nada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: HarperAvenue, 2023.
PS8619.A424 M83 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nada Syed is stuck. On the cusp of thirty, she’s still living at home with her brothers and parents in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood of Toronto, resolutely ignoring her mother’s unsubtle pleas to get married already. While Nada has a good job as an engineer, it’s a far cry from realizing the start-up dreams for her tech baby, Ask Apa<\/em>, the app that launched with a whimper instead of a bang because of a double-crossing business partner. Nothing in her life has turned out the way it was supposed to, and Nada feels like a failure. Something needs to change, but the past is holding on too tightly to let her move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nada’s best friend, Haleema, is determined to pry her from her shell . . . and what better place than at the giant annual Muslim conference downtown, where Nada can finally meet Haleema’s fianc\u00e9, Zayn? And did Haleema mention Zayn’s brother Baz will be there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Haleema doesn’t know is that Nada and Baz have a past\u2014some of it good, some of it bad, and all of it secret. At the conference, that past all comes hurtling back at Nada, bringing new complications and a moment of reckoning. Can she truly say goodbye to what once was, or should she hold tight to her dreams and find their new beginnings?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Three Holidays and a Wedding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Co-author: Marissa Stapley
Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2023.
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Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

From two bestselling Canadian authors comes a multi-faith holiday rom-com about the delightful havoc that occurs when Christmas, Ramadan, and Hanukkah all fall at the same time, and two strangers-turned-friends are snowbound in the small, charming town of Snow Falls along with the cast and crew of a holiday romance movie, nosy family members, and their lifelong crushes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Yours for the Season: A Novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mindy’s Book Studio, 2025.
forthcoming Dec. 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synopsis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When Sameera Malik and Tom Cooke meet at a ho-hum holiday party, neither is looking for romance. Sameera\u2019s working ridiculous hours at her law firm and healing from heartache while navigating a recently resolved family estrangement. Tom\u2019s hustling to turn his social media stardom into a real career while fending off his family\u2019s demands to give up his chef dreams and move back home. The two share a few laughs and a samosa-making lesson and go their separate ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when one of Tom\u2019s posts starts a viral rumor that they\u2019re a couple, he suggests they keep up the ruse for a few months. It\u2019s a good proposal, and a fauxmance will help Tom grow his popularity, and, in return, he can help Sameera land a wealthy client. The only problem? Their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sameera\u2019s very Muslim parents insist on meeting Tom\u2019s very not Muslim family over Christmas in rural Alaska, the stage is set for misunderstandings, holiday hijinks, and an epic culture clash. As the Maliks and Cookes exchange holiday traditions and endless opinions on their children\u2019s lives, Sameera and Tom realize they have a lot in common\u2015including an attraction that\u2019s starting to feel very real.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Selected Criticism and Interpretation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shelby, Alexander. “Uzma Jalaluddin’s World: Pride and Prejudice and Ayesha at Last.” Retelling Jane Austen: Essays on Recent Adaptations and Derivative Works<\/em>, edited by Tammy Powley and April Van Camp, McFarland, 2024.
PR4038.F55 R48 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Uzma Jalaluddin personal website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher HarperCollins Canada<\/a> (publisher of the HarperAvenue imprint)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Penguin Random House Canada<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Uzma Jalaluddin is a secondary school teacher who grew up in the Scarborough area of Toronto and now lives in Markham, Ontario. She used to write a popular column for the Toronto Star about modern Muslim life. Fiction Ayesha at … 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-9586","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9586","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=9586"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22028,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9586\/revisions\/22028"}],"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=9586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}