She is curious about her mysterious aunt but also frustrated by some family traditions. She is drawn to Aydin but wants to stay loyal to her family and their restaurant. She loves her job at the radio station but also wants to help her mother run the family restaurant. Jalaluddin beautifully weaves together Hana’s inner struggles. Both Ayesha At Last and Hana Khan Carries On are being adapted into movies by big names like Pascal Pictures, Amazon Studios, and Mindy Kaling.Īlthough the book is fiction, it’s easy to tell the author has lived experience with the story she’s creating. Jalaluddin’s debut won the Cosmopolitan Book of the Year award.

Her debut novel, Ayesha At Last, is a modern re-telling of Pride and Prejudice, but with a Torontonian Muslim twist. She takes classic romance stories and imagines what they would look like in the world she grew up in. Uzma Jalaluddin grew up in a diverse suburb in Toronto, Ontario. And readers responded to this reimagined classic, landing the book on the Toronto Star bestseller list. With these places, characters, and cultures that are underrepresented in Canadian literature, the story feels fresh. But Hana’s family practices Islam and hails from India. This is a story many have heard before: two star-crossed lovers butt heads until they realize the tension between them is actually love.

But they end up having more chemistry than Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, eventually (and sometimes begrudgingly) joining forces through fighting hate crimes, uncovering family secrets, and enjoying Hana’s mother’s biryani. She introduces Hana and Aydin, rival business owners and each other’s biggest pain in the ass. Hana Khan Carries On is Jalaluddin’s second book, and it brings the premise of You’ve Got Mail to two warring halal restaurants in a Toronto suburb.

Uzma jalaluddin hana khan carries on