Another Veil-lifter Pitched

By Paul Ford

Dear EDITOR,

I am proud to send you, in galley, THE VEILS FLEW AWAY LIKE KITES, the first novel by major new talent Isolde Mabuq.

Open it. Sniff it—redolent of mountain snow. The crack of the spine brings to mind the sound of Soviet rifles firing—the first sounds the protagonist Fatima is able to recall.

Has there ever before been a fictional character like Fatima? At the age of 12 she flies a kite, reads Pnin, menstruates, and bears witness to the murder of her parents by the Taliban. Soon after she is sent to live with American Christians, and spends a fragile adolescence acclimatizing to the poisonous indifference and callousness of the West before attending an Ivy-league college where she majors in economics and sleeps with a professor (an adjunct but still). We thrill as she casts off her grim past to join a Wall Street investment firm, finds love, and indulges in fine sweaters.

It is a tale of triumph told with first-hand knowledge hard-earned by novelist Mabuq, who like the fictional Fatima was born in Afghanistan, molested in Mississippi, educated at Princeton, and is now 27. Believe me that words do this remarkable new author little justice, but here are some that try: green-eyed, horsewoman, Dior, NYTBR, endcap. A glossy photo is attached. The Arcade Fire wrote the foreword.

Sincerely,