As part of his DSC Prize Winner’s Tour, HM Naqvi’s award winning novel, Home Boy was launched on Thursday, at Crossword in Alwarpet. The novel covers serious topics of South Asian life in a post 9/11 America and the sometimes disturbing trials of urban, young manhood. This feels almost comical to discuss in the children’s section of a store with sharks and starfish on the carpet and barbies on the shelves.The book follows the stories of three young Pakistani men in New York City, at the turn of the millennium. It is described as a mysterious immigrant’s tale and a beautiful story of love and loss, touching on anxieties shared by many east to west immigrants, who are coming to terms with the possibility of “never seeing home again”, according to the author.A man who started writing at four, Naqvi believes in writing as “a way of making sense of ourselves”, although he describes his novel as only 14 per cent biographical. He read some of his book and discussed his work with Rakesh Khanna, editor of Blaft Publications. The book itself was written during a two-year stay in the United States. When asked about the target audience, Naqvi maintains, “Whatever I do is, by definition, Pakistani, but I wanted to leave my own imprint, to own the city (New York).” Perhaps, in the very spirit of a city, built by immigrants.Home Boy covers American pop culture, with references to popular music and characters that stand out as intrinsically American, but it is far from an obscure cardboard cut-out of western consumerism. It resonates with the reader and offers characters that, in the words of Naqvi, “remain after you’ve put the book down.” As the man also said, in true artiste style, “shows over folks, I’m going for a cigarette”.
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