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Uzma Jalaluddin is Canadian writer who’s going places. The high school teacher/Toronto Star parenting columnist recently took on another job title: author. Her first novel, Ayesha At Last, has become the must-read book of the summer. The delightful story is a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but instead of being about white British people from the 19^th century, it’s centred around a community of South Asian-Canadians living in Scarborough today.

Ayesha At Last is both hilarious and relatable. Her protagonist, twenty-seven-year-old Ayesha, is a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet trying to manage her career as a teacher with her aspirations of becoming a poet. She’s far too busy to fall in love, but when she meets Khalid, her handsome new neighbour, sparks fly. The only problem is that she and Khalid don’t always see eye-to-eye. Can these contemporary Canadian incarnations of the iconic Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet resolve their differences in time for a happy ending? Well, pick up a copy at your local bookstore or library and find out! We wouldn’t want to spoil the ending of the summer’s most delicious new read!

We sat down Jalaluddin to talk about Ayesha At Last, the importance of diversity in popular culture, and her advice for fledgling authors.

Uzma Jalaluddin’s debut novel, “Ayesha at Last,” takes place in a close-knit immigrant Muslim community in Canada, and features an outspoken Muslim heroine who falls for a more conservative Muslim man, a Darcy to her Lizzie Bennett.

This sweet debut novel ticks all the boxes for one of summer’s best reads: It’s smart, witty, romantic and utterly charming. Taking cues from Pride and Prejudice, the story revolves around pretty Ayesha Shamsi, who, along with her Muslim family, lives across the street from the more conservative—and attractive—Khalid Mirza. As the two clash over everything from poetry to arranged marriage, they also begin to connect. When mistaken identity, troublesome relatives and workplace drama loom, it’s up to these two adorable characters to save the day and find their path to true love. —Suzanne Moutis

Uzma Jalaluddin is a teacher, parenting columnist and author based in Ontario. Her debut novel, Ayesha At Last, is the tale of a young Muslim woman who aspires to be a poet and must balance what her family expects of her with what she wants for herself. Things get tricky when she falls for Khalid, a young conservative man who is set to marry someone else. 

Below, Jalaluddin tells CBC Books how she wrote Ayesha At Last. 

Writing beyond the ‘immigrant experience’

“I knew I wanted to tell a story that was authentic to my own lived experience. I wanted to write something slightly different than other stories out there about South Asians and Muslims in particular. I read voraciously and widely — I’ve read and enjoyed so many books by different authors. But especially growing up as a child there weren’t a lot of books by diverse writers of colour. I always found books that actually spoke about the immigrant experience and people of colour were filtered through a condescending, sometimes erroneous lens.”

Subverting expectations

“This book actually came out of the ruins of another book which was going nowhere. I was out for lunch with a writer friend and she mentioned I could repurpose one of the characters from that book to build a new story. That was the character who ended up being the male lead, Khalid, in this book.

“I just had this funny image of this man who is an observant and conservative man in a big beard and wearing religious clothing with a skullcap. He just looks like the stereotypical ‘scary person’ and yet, he is a total romantic who has fallen completely in love with this girl. I thought it was so funny to look at the juxtaposition of people’s expectations of someone who looks and dresses like that versus his romantic heart. He jumped into my head and wouldn’t let go. From that character, the rest of the book sort of emerged very slowly, very painfully.”