SRINAGAR: Westland Books has announced the opening of pre-orders for Maryam & Son, the much-anticipated fourth novel by award-winning author Mirza Waheed. The book will be published under Westland’s literary imprint, Context, on January 26, 2026, and is already being positioned as one of the publisher’s lead fiction titles for the year.
Set primarily in London, Maryam & Son is a psychologically charged novel that examines motherhood, grief, desire, and the intimate costs of distant wars. At its centre is Maryam Ali, a school chef and widow whose ordinary life fractures one morning when she discovers that her son’s bed is empty. Urged by her sisters, Maryam reports him missing, clinging to the hope of a swift explanation. What follows instead is a visit from government officials bearing unsettling information: her son, Dil, may be far from London and involved in circumstances she can scarcely comprehend.
As days stretch into weeks and uncertainty becomes unbearable, Maryam turns inward, retreating into memory in search of answers that the present refuses to offer. Her isolation deepens as she is drawn into an uneasy, dangerous attraction with Julian, the young family liaison officer assigned to her case. The relationship forces her to confront an uncomfortable paradox: desire entwined with power, intimacy shadowed by the knowledge that Julian represents the very state now scrutinising her family.
Against the backdrop of American bombs falling on Mosul, Waheed poses a devastating moral and emotional question: how does a mother grieve a child who may still be alive, who may be dead, who may be guilty or innocent, and whom she may never have fully known? Rather than focusing on the spectacle of war itself, Maryam & Son turns its gaze to those left behind, particularly mothers and sisters living in the corrosive aftermath of alleged involvement in faraway conflicts.
The novel explores how suspicion, prejudice, surveillance, and misinformation seep into domestic life, eroding the idea of home as a sanctuary. In Waheed’s telling, the private sphere becomes porous, invaded by the apparatus of the state, where truth is unstable, and identity is constantly under threat. Yet the book is not solely about loss. It is also a story of resilience, desire, dark humour, and a woman’s determination to reclaim authorship over her own life.
“I have spent much of the last five years in the company of Maryam and her sisters,” Waheed said while commenting on the novel. “I hope Maryam breaks some hearts and makes some laugh. I am certain she will make some fall in love.”
Karthika VK, Publisher at Westland Books, described Maryam & Son as a novel that rewards repeated reading. “It’s taut and dark yet humorous, and draws the reader into an intimate encounter with grief and desire,” she said. “Each time I returned to it, I discovered something new to respond to, viscerally. We are delighted to publish the book at Westland as a lead title in Context.”
Originally from Kashmir, Mirza Waheed is widely regarded as one of South Asia’s most compelling contemporary literary voices. His earlier novels, The Collaborator (2009), The Book of Gold Leaves (2012), and Tell Her Everything (2018), have been critically acclaimed for their nuanced exploration of conflict, displacement, and the psychological scars left by political violence.
With Maryam & Son, Waheed extends these concerns into a global present shaped by surveillance, fear, and moral ambiguity, offering a deeply humane portrait of a woman who refuses to let the state rewrite her life story.
