Azhar Ali Abidi (born 1968 in

Wah Wah or WAH may refer to: * Wah (city), in the Punjab province of Pakistan * Wah Cantonment, a military base located in the city of Wah * Wah!, an English rock band * Wah! (American band) * Wa (unit), a Thai length sometimes transliterated as '' ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

) is a

Pakistani Australian Pakistani Australians () are Australians who are of Pakistani descent or heritage. Most Pakistani Australians are Muslims by religion, although there are also sizeable Christian, Hindu and other minorities. History in Australia An anthropologic ...

author and translator. He went to school in Pakistan and later studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

and

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. He migrated to Australia in 1994 and lives in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia.

Career

Abidi has written translations, travelogues, and a number of short stories, including the

Borgesian Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known wo ...

''The Secret History of the Flying Carpet'', which is a fictitious story in a seemingly scholarly essay. His first novel, ''Passarola Rising'' (2006), was published by

Viking Penguin Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqui ...

in Australia, USA, Canada and India and translated into Spanish and Portuguese. It is set in Europe during the eighteenth century and is the fictionalised story of a true life Brazilian priest and aviation pioneer,

Bartolomeu de Gusmão Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (December 1685 – 18 November 1724) was a Portuguese priest and naturalist from Colonial Brazil who was a pioneer of lighter-than-air aerostat design, being among the first scholars at that time to understand the ...

, who built a flying ship but fell foul of the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

. Written in the style of an old-fashioned adventure story, it is a veiled criticism of the scientific materialism emerging from the

European Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a European intellectual and philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained through rationalism and empirici ...

, and its inability to explain spiritual and supernatural phenomena.A conversation with Azhar Abidi
. ''Passarola Rising'' was shortlisted for the 2006 Melbourne Literature Prize. In his second novel, ''Twilight'' (2008), Abidi turns to domestic and realist themes. Set in Pakistan during the 1980s, it is the story of an elderly matriarch, and her reaction to the changes she sees in her family and society during the turbulent times. Twilight is published by Text Publishing in Australia and by Viking Penguin in the United States and India. It appears in the United States as ''The House of Bilqis'' (2009). In 2010, Abidi wrote an essay on Pakistan, ''The Road to Chitral'', fo
Granta Online
which is a travelogue and a meditation on violence in the region. His short story, ''When the Angel Comes'', is set in Iran just after the Islamic revolution of 1979. When the pro-Western, pro-American Shah fled the country, thousands of his supporters were arrested and many were executed by the new regime. This story is about a diplomat and courtier of the deposed Shah who is caught up in that turmoil.

Bibliography

;Novels *''Passarola Rising'' (2006) *''La maquina de volar'' (2008) , 9788483650509 *''Twilight'' (2008) (reissued in United States as ''The House of Bilqis'') (2009) *''La casa degli amori sognati'' (2010) *''Il mio matrimonio pakistano'' (2011) ;Translations *"Old Croc" - a short story by Hasan Manzar (''Annual of Urdu Studies'', Vol 16, 2001) *"The Fall of Baghdad" - essay by Azeem Beg Chughtai (''Annual of Urdu Studies'', Vol 18, 2003) ;Short Stories/Essays *"Secret History of the Flying Carpet",

Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent impri ...

, Vol 63, No 2, 2004 (reissued in United States in

Southwest Review The ''Southwest Review'' is a literary journal published quarterly at Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1915 as the ''Texas Review'', it is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States. The current ed ...

, Vol 91, No 1, 2006) *"Rosa",

Words Without Borders ''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...

, April 2006 *"A Passage to the Past"

The Pakistan of Azhar's childhood was already coming to an end when he took his leave, The Age, June 2009 *"Road to Chitral"
Granta
September 2010 *"When the Angel Comes"

Meanjin, 2018

Interviews

''The Australian'' interviews Azhar Abidi

''The Dawn'' interviewAzhar Abidi examines the emigrant experience in the ''Wall Street Journal''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abidi, Azhar Ali Living people 1968 births Alumni of Imperial College London Pakistani male novelists Pakistani translators 21st-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Australian male short story writers Australian translators Pakistani emigrants to Australia University of Melbourne alumni 21st-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Pakistani short story writers Australian writers of Pakistani descent 21st-century Australian male writers 21st-century translators