Professor Abdur Raheem Kidwai and Dr. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui, Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University have published an edited volume of seventeen critical studies on Qaisra Shahraz’s fiction titled “The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction” published by Sarup and Sons, New Delhi.

Qaisra Shahraz, a British novelist, has been widely acclaimed as a major writer of contemporary world. Her novels “The Holy Woman” (2001) and “Typhoon” (2003) are considered as trend setting novels, which examine perceptively a wide range of complex issues such as gender, cross-cultural encounters, representation, recontextualization of Muslim society and modernity, cultural and marginality studies.

Among the contributors to the volume are Angelika Hoff (USA), Karin Vogt (Germany), Liesel Hermes (Germany), Mohammed Ezroura (Morrocco), Sana Imtiaz and Shirin Haider (Pakistan), Sherin Sherwani (Saudi Arabia), Shuby Abidi (JMI, New Delhi), and A.J.A. Syed, Attia Abid, A.R. Kidwai, Masoodul Hasan, Sajidul Islam, Asim Siddiqui, Nazia Hasan, Sami Rafiq, Seemin Hasan and Shahla Ghauri (Dept. of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh).

The volume carries a foreword by Professor Akber Ahmad, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington, DC and critical comments on Qaisra Shahraz works by critiques from China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jordon, Morrocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Turkey, UAE, UK and the US. It contains also Dr. Sami Rafiq’s insightful interview with Dr. Qaisra Shahraz. The volume will go a long way in contributing to cross-cultural understanding.