The Writer’s Center welcomes novelist and former instructor Amin Ahmad for a frank discussion of writing with an eye on the market, writing in genre, how agents work and different pathways to publication. Amin will be joined in conversation with Susan Coll as they discuss how these considerations led to their most recent publications, A Killer in the Family and The Literati, respectively.
FREE & open to the public. Register below.
We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or online from Bookshop.org »
Amin Ahmad was raised in India and came to America at the age of 17. He worked as an architect for many years before turning to writing. He teaches creative writing at Duke University, and lives in Durham NC with his family and a very mischievous cat. When he’s not writing, he can be found on his front porch, drinking tea and watching the world go by.
Real Life and Other Fictions is Susan Coll’s seventh novel. Her previous books include Bookish People; The Stager, a New York Times and Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice; and Acceptance, which was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Moment Magazine, NPR.org, and Atlantic.com. She is the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC, and was the president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation for five years. She has taught workshops at The Writer’s Center for more than twenty years.
About the A Killer in the Family
A thrilling, intoxicating novel set among New York City’s most elite residents, for readers of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Age of Vice
Ali Azeem, a naive Muslim bachelor from Mumbai, thinks he has hit the jackpot when he agrees to an arranged marriage with Maryam Khan, daughter of Abbas Khan, a self-made real-estate tycoon and one of the richest men in New York. Moving with her to the United States, Ali quickly enters an intoxicating, Gatsbyesque world of supertall skyscrapers, sumptuous clothing, and helicopter rides to the Hamptons. However, shortly after the newlyweds move into one of the city’s most luxurious apartments, Maryam’s older sister, Farhan, tells Ali that beneath her father’s success lies sinister deeds.
But can Farhan be trusted? She is a rebellious outsider and, according to Maryam, an unstable liar. Plus, as the newly minted husband of Abbas’s favorite daughter, Ali has an open invitation to join Tiger Corp., the family’s business empire. Before he commits, Ali launches his own investigation to determine who the Khans really are: the embodiment of the American dream—or cutthroat one-percenters out for themselves? As he closes in on the truth, Ali must ask himself if he can pay the price unimaginable wealth demands.
An unforgettable, riveting portrait of power and family secrets, A Killer in the Family will have readers second-guessing every Khan until its shocking end.
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