Book Launch - Like A Diamond In The Sky August 14, 2009

Book Launch - Like A Diamond In The Sky. Noted writer and journalist Annie Zaidi will be in conversation with the author. At twenty-one, Deen is dismayed by the poverty around him and trapped in negativity. Alienated from family and society, heroin is his drug of choice. Deen and his partner in crime, AJ, ride high on acid and amphetamines, philosophize in the university canteen, party i n a politician's posh pad and contemplate God at a roadside tea stall. From Maria, a chemically imbalanced diva, to a rickshaw-walla who reflects on the importance of positive energy, to a group of fakirs who sing about love, and a detective who has his own take on addiction, the characters in Shazia Omar's debut novel crackle with life. They represent the despair, hopes and aspirations of a generation struggling to survive in the harsh realities of life in modern Dhaka. About the Author: 29-year-old Shazia Omar studied at Dartmouth College USA. After graduating, she joined an investment bank in the financial district of New York. "One morning I watched a plane fly into my office, watched the building collapse, watched burning people falling through the sky, and then watched the forces of fear, ha tred and greed take over the world." After three years of travelling and teaching yoga, she completed a masters in Social Psychology at LSE, UK, and then spent a month as intern at a heroin rehabilitation centre in Bombay. She lives in Bangladesh and works as communications officer at a World Bank Group development organization. She has a baby daughter. Like a Diamond in the Sky is her first novel.

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