Books like 'The Writing on My Forehead'

Readers who enjoyed The Writing on My Forehead by Nafisa Haji also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  south asian  muslim

  • Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar

    Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar

    Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    An aspiring photographer follows her dreams and faces her fears in a poignant novel about finding beauty, promise, and love amid the chaos of war-torn Kurdistan.It’s 1979. Olivia Murray, a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper, is determined to become a photojournalist and make a difference with her work...
  • The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

    The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 61 ratings
    Listen to Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love reviewed on NPR In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul , acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together...
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  • Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata

    Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    Begitu banyak hal menakjubkan yang terjadi dalam masa kecil para anggota Laskar Pelangi. Sebelas orang anak Melayu Belitong yang luar biasa ini tak menyerah walau keadaan tak bersimpati pada mereka...
    Categorized as:
    muslim  contemporary  length-long
  • Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das

    Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    A bighearted romantic comedy about family and finding the perfect match set against the exuberant backdrop of contemporary Delhi. Home has always been a temporary arrangement for Samara Mansingh, a wayfaring wedding photographer and the daughter of a diplomat. When her father is uprooted once again, Samara needs a place to stay in Delhi. Next the Khanna family...
  • Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

    Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 27 ratings
    From the author of Ayesha at Last comes a sparkling new rom-com for fans of "You've Got Mail," set in two competing halal restaurants. Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighborhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio...
  • A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

    A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry...
  • Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel

    Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    'A love letter to R&B, youth, and the unforgettable agonies of one's first love...I will read everything Patel writes from here on.' Susie Yang, New York Times bestselling author of White IvyLost in the jungle of Los Angeles, Akash Amin is filled with shame. Shame for liking men. Shame for wanting to be a songwriter. Shame for not being like his perfect brother. Shame for his alcoholism...
  • The Last Queen of India by Michelle Moran

    The Last Queen of India by Michelle Moran

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    1857, India. At nineteen years old, Sita is the shining star of Queen Lakshmi of India's imperial guard, having pledged herself to a life of celibacy in the name of protecting the young ruler. When Sita agrees to train Lakshmi in the art of military combat, a close friendship develops between the two women...
  • No Honour by Awais Khan

    No Honour by Awais Khan

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    A young woman defies convention in a small Pakistani village, with devastating results for her and her family. A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… In sixteen-year-old Abida’s small Pakistani village, there are age-old rules to live by, and her family’s honour to protect...
  • Twisted Alliance: An Arranged Marriage Romance by P.G. Van, P.G. Van

    Twisted Alliance: An Arranged Marriage Romance by P.G. Van, P.G. Van

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    "It's time for you to pay... wife," he said with a cold smile on his darkly handsome face. #1 ROMANCE BESTSELLER ON AMAZON INDIAIshani Gujjar led a sheltered life as the heiress of a desert clan. Her world is suddenly shaken when her marriage is arranged to a stranger who came from a faraway place, claiming to be the secret heir of the powerful Thakvar clan...
  • The Perfect Bow by Samirah Zaman

    The Perfect Bow by Samirah Zaman

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    You are cordially invited into the marriage ofSumayyah Rahman & Yousef HasanSumayyah was handed the perfect checklist of what life should education, career, marriage, and children. Having made her father proud by becoming a doctor, she honoured her mother’s wishes by agreeing to an arranged marriage.Yousef was a simple man who had but one to have a family...
  • Since You Came Along by Kajal Rai

    Since You Came Along by Kajal Rai

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    Loss broke him.Love betrayed her.So they agree to a marriage of convenience.But when love demands to be felt, even the most guarded hearts can’t help but surrender.Meera Diwan learned the hard way that love can’t be trusted. After heartbreak and betrayal, she’s done waiting for a fairytale.Raghav Sareen doesn’t do feelings...
  • My Beautiful Chaos by Swati M.H.

    My Beautiful Chaos by Swati M.H.

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Love wanes.That’s what my missing groom told me over the phone . . . on our wedding day, no less.I wasn’t about to go down that road again—love, marriage, forever. I had enough on my plate serving as deputy general counsel of our family business and keeping my matchmaking parents off my back.Then Wayland Ramirez comes roaring back into my life...
  • The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra

    The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 22 ratings
    On a January morning in 1938, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family’s ittar shop in Lahore. Over the years that follow, the perfumer’s apprentice and calligrapher’s apprentice fall in love with their ancient crafts and with each other, dreaming of the life they will one day share...
  • The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Karuna Ezara Parikh

    The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Karuna Ezara Parikh

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    An extraordinary tale of love in a world being torn asunder.It is 2001 and Daya and Aaftab have just met in a park in Cardiff. She is studying ballet and he is practising in a law firm. She falls madly in love. He does, but he also cannot, because he is Muslim and there are certain rules...
  • Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

    Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 57 ratings
    Somer's life is everything she imagined it would be — she's newly married and has started her career as a physician in San Francisco — until she makes the devastating discovery she never will be able to have children.The same year in India, a poor mother makes the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn daughter's life by giving her away...
  • Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron

    Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 15 ratings
    Kamila Hussain’s life might not be perfect, but, whew, it’s close. She lives a life of comfort, filled with her elaborate Bollywood movie parties, a dog with more Instagram followers than most reality stars, a job she loves, and an endless array of friends who clearly need her help finding love. In fact, Kamila is so busy with her friends’ love lives, she’s hardly given any thought to her own .
  • Marriage Jitters by Madhuri Tamse

    Marriage Jitters by Madhuri Tamse

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Billionaire Viren Dewan’s sister was getting married in one month and Event Manager Tarini Kaur bagged that project to plan her wedding. She struggled organizing the wedding as Viren Dewan’s classy extravagant attitude kept hurdling her work. Least did she know they had a history together, a knot which his family easily forgot and hers denied to accept...
  • Unsuitable Husband by Anika Rao

    Unsuitable Husband by Anika Rao

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    She was about to be forced into a marriage. To escape it, she married another man temporarily until she receives her inheritance. The man she married is her best friend's brother whom she had a crush on during her childhood.But her problems didn't stop with signatures on a marriage certificate. Her uncle didn't think her marriage to a struggling mechanic would last...
  • The Orphan's Gift by Renita D'Silva

    The Orphan's Gift by Renita D'Silva

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    She allows herself to kiss her perfect child just once. She wraps the baby in her last gift: a hand-knitted cardigan, embroidered with a water lily pattern. ‘You’re better off without me,’ she whispers and although every step breaks her heart, she walks away. 1910, India...
  • Mr & Mrs Thakur by Madhuri Tamse

    Mr & Mrs Thakur by Madhuri Tamse

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    Standalone Romance Book 2 from Mr and Mrs. SeriesNeil Thakur is a Jerk Entrepreneur who gets what he eyes on. When he and his pricey girlfriend Nyra are en route to India, his life collides with 21-year-old Esha Singhal, the daughter of his rival. Whilst his mind tries to keep that baby girl out of his way, his body and heart doesn’t approve. A romantic tale of love, betrayal and possession...
  • Scent of a Garden by Namrata Patel

    Scent of a Garden by Namrata Patel

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    A perfumer in Paris is forced to return to her California roots in an exhilarating novel about family, self-discovery, and taking risks by the author of The Candid Life of Meena Dave.The daughter of proud Napa Valley hoteliers, Asha “Poppy” Patel chose a different line as a Paris perfumer, gifted with a nose for fragrances and business. Until her heightened sense of smell disappears...
  • Fake Locked: by Era Mable

    Fake Locked: by Era Mable

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Experience a whirlwind of love, passion, drama, and thrill in the Oberoi Brothers universe.BLURBRuhi WaliaVibrant, sexy, and ambitious, she is on a mission to build her own food empire before taking over the family business. As the daughter of a wealthy hotelier, her life seems idyllic until a psycho kidnaps and almost kills her...
  • Guapa by Saleem Haddad

    Guapa by Saleem Haddad

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A debut novel that tells the story of Rasa, a young gay man coming of age in the Middle East   Set over the course of twenty-four hours,  Guapa  follows Rasa, a gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, as he tries to carve out a life for himself in the midst of political and social upheaval...
    Categorized as:
    muslim  m-m  contemporary  queer  length-medium  audiobook
  • Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors

    Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors

    Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    Journey to dazzling seventeenth-century Hindustan, where the reigning emperor, consumed with grief over the tragic death of his beloved wife, commissioned the building of a grand mausoleum as a testament to the marvel of their love. This monument would soon become known as the Taj Mahal—a sight famous around the world for its beauty and the emotions it symbolizes...
  • Saree by Su Dharmapala

    Saree by Su Dharmapala

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Nila wasn’t born beautiful and is destined to go through life unnoticed… until she becomes a saree maker. As she works, Nila weaves into the silk a pattern of love, hope and devotion, which will prove to be invaluable to more lives than her own...
  • Man of Her Match by Sakshama Puri Dhariwal

    Man of Her Match by Sakshama Puri Dhariwal

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Kicked off the team for a series of misdemeanours, Indian cricket's playboy Vikram Walia finally has a chance at redemption. The only it involves collaborating with his childhood best friend turned sworn enemy, Nidhi Marwah...
  • Accidentally Married by Andaleeb Wajid

    Accidentally Married by Andaleeb Wajid

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    How far would you go to win? How far is too far?Neighbours and family friends, Ahad and Areesha have known each other all their lives and hated each other for most of it. From demeaning poetry to chilli coated straws to crushed ice in uncomfortable places to strategically executed breakups, they've stopped at nothing in their quest to taunt and torment one another...
  • Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by Shilpa Suraj

    Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by Shilpa Suraj

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    She believes in love, family and…squiggles! Alisha Rana is not your typical single desi girl. For one, she is on the wrong side of 30. For another, she is divorced. And last but definitely not least, she is still, gasp, a virgin!Alisha doesn’t want much...
  • The Sweetness of Tears by Nafisa Haji

    The Sweetness of Tears by Nafisa Haji

    Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    From Nafisa Haji, author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Writing on My Forehead, comes The Sweetness of Tears, an emotional, deeply layered story that explores the far reaching effects of cultural prejudice, forbidden love, and hidden histories on a young woman and her family...
  • Married in Deceit by Shilpa Suraj

    Married in Deceit by Shilpa Suraj

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Veda Gadde, Bharatnatyam dancer and media heiress believes in love, marriage, and happy-ever-afters. When her heart stumbles for her best friend's brother, she wishes on every star in the Universe to have a shot at a life with him. And the Universe delivers...Agastya Kodela, IT Minister and future Prime Minister potential, rarely forgives and never forgets...
  • People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

    People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 75 ratings
    From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war...
  • Water by Bapsi Sidhwa, Deepa Mehta

    Water by Bapsi Sidhwa, Deepa Mehta

    Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The renowned author Bapsi Sidhwa and the equally renowned filmmaker Deepa Mehta share a unique artistic relationship: Mehta adapted Sidhwa’s novel Cracking India for her brilliant film Earth, and here, Sidhwa adapts Mehta’s controversial film Water to the printed page...
  • Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

    Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

    Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family; her cousin Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of the family. Sudha is as beautiful, tenderhearted, and serious as Anju is plain, whip-smart, and defiant. yet since the day they were born, Sudha and Anju have been bonded in ways even their mothers cannot comprehend...
  • Only Wheat Not White by Varsha Dixit

    Only Wheat Not White by Varsha Dixit

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    What if the one you completely love is the one you simply can't! Twenty-six-year-old Eila Sood moves to America to mend fences with her estranged older sister, Sheela. Eila and the rest of the family in India had cut off ties with Sheela after she married Steve Jacobs, 'out of caste, and out of color'. Elia soon realizes that Sheela's marriage is on the rocks...
  • Married in Hate by Shilpa Suraj

    Married in Hate by Shilpa Suraj

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    When friends turn enemies turn spouses…Four years ago, Priyanka had planned to elope with the love of her life. Only to be left stranded at the bus stop waiting for a man who never came…Daughter to the sitting Chief Minister, Dr. Priyanka Kodela’s life is a gilded cage. A cage she accepts as atonement for her sins, the ones her family can never find out about...
  • The Wedding Photographer by Sakshama Puri Dhariwal

    The Wedding Photographer by Sakshama Puri Dhariwal

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    On a seventeen-hour-long flight, a chance upgrade to business class lands journalist Risha Kohli next to handsome real estate hotshot Arjun Khanna...
  • She Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Zeenat Mahal

    She Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Zeenat Mahal

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Zoella didn’t know whether she was devastatingly happy or happily devastated. Zoella has been in love with Fardeen Malik, her best friend’s gorgeous older brother, since she was ten, but he’s always seen her as a ‘good girl’—not his type—and he can barely remember her name...
  • Priyamvada & Co. by Sudha Nair

    Priyamvada & Co. by Sudha Nair

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    A heart-warming tale about love, friendship, and following one’s heart. The destinies of an unlikely trio converge at the making of a movie.The eldest Menon daughter and school drama teacher, Neha Menon, must find a way to face the hard times and deal with the loss that threatens to destroy her family...
  • Trouble Has A New Name by Adite Banerjie

    Trouble Has A New Name by Adite Banerjie

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    “Will you pretend to be my fiancé for the next few days?” Recently-single model Rayna Dutt does not feel like flying to her friend’s big fat Indian wedding. But she does - and when a mix up with room allocations forces her to share a luxury villa on Emerald Isle with the gorgeous owner of the hotel - Neel Arora - and best man at the wedding, things begin to look up...
  • If I Loved You Less by Aamna Qureshi

    If I Loved You Less by Aamna Qureshi

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A joyful romantic comedy retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma!I know what you’re thinking: poor little rich girl, she has everything, what else could she possibly need? Well, I’m looking for the great love of my life, thank you very much.For Long Island native Humaira Mirza, it’s always been about love – and she has the matchmaking track record to prove it...
  • If You Let Me Go by Sonia Rao

    If You Let Me Go by Sonia Rao

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    What happens in Paris…Shivalika is a brilliant interior designer who attracts suitors like bees to honey. But she will have none of that. Shivalika has her life mapped out. She does not believe in love at all and is only focused on her career the reason for which is a secret she has nursed since she was a teenager...
  • The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson

    The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    The extraordinary story of an all-American girl’s conversion to Islam and her ensuing romance with a young Egyptian man, The Butterfly Mosque is a stunning articulation of a Westerner embracing the Muslim world. When G...
  • These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere

    These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Set in a country where being gay is punishable by law, These Letters End in Tears is the heart-wrenching forbidden love story of a Christian girl with a deviant heart and a Muslim girl leading a double lifeBessem notices Fatima for the first time on the soccer field—muscular and focused, she’s the only woman playing and seems completely at ease...
    Categorized as:
    muslim  queer  contemporary  f-f  mystery  audiobook
  • The One I Love by Nivedita Vedurla

    The One I Love by Nivedita Vedurla

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Dear Mr. Ajay Khurana, Before I started on the cruise trip where I met you, I was uncertain about travelling by myself. You changed my outlook towards travelling, and towards life. Despite all the wondrous changes you made in my life, I have a complaint; I can't stand your son. He is arrogant, mannerless and a complete womanizer...
  • My Other Half by Neya B

    My Other Half by Neya B

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 12 ratings
    It's crazy how fate can change the perspective of our future. Hayat didn’t plan to meet the man who will love her in this life and the afterlife. As a twenty-six-year-old web designer, Hayat was focused on her career, love was not on her agenda. Not even marriage. Anas, on the other hand, secretly hoped to find someone who could love Souhila as much as he did...
  • Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

    Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

    Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 79 ratings
    You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut...
  • Love Marriage by Monica Ali

    Love Marriage by Monica Ali

    Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    In present-day London, Yasmin Ghorami is twenty-six, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father), and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose formidable mother, Harriet, is a famous feminist. The gulf between families is vast. So, too, is the gulf in sexual experience between Yasmin and Joe...
  • The Legal Affair by Nisha Sharma

    The Legal Affair by Nisha Sharma

    Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Rajneet Hothi built her empire with sweat, blood, and information. She knows everything there is to know about Ajay Singh, the future CEO of Bharat, Inc., as well as how crucial he is in securing her future. But she didn’t expect the passion that burst between them the first time they went head-to-head...
  • A Beggar at the Gate by Thalassa Ali

    A Beggar at the Gate by Thalassa Ali

    Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Set in nineteenth-century British India, Thalassa Ali�s dazzling debut, A Singular Hostage, introduced us to Mariana Givens, the Englishwoman who risked everything to save a young Indian orphan from certain death. Now Ali returns to that exotic kingdom beyond the northwestern frontier, where Mariana will come face-to-face with a different destiny...
    Categorized as:
    south asian  contemporary  length-long
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