Keeru

Fauzia Rafique

Haider Shahbaz

'We think insects are inferior, insignificant, but insects know how to survive; they are tough. Small, big, swimming, crawling, flying – there are more kinds of insects than we can count.'

Muhammad Hussain Khan 'Keeru' – named after insects – has come a long way since Pakistan, where he was hounded for his caste, and almost beaten to death on false charges of blasphemy. Having escaped to Canada, he is the owner of a small business, but the past has an inexorable habit of haunting him even in the present.

Told from the perspectives of five characters, each tormented by their past and desperately in pursuit of a home, Keeru tells queer and feminist stories as it overturns familiar tropes about migration and family. This award-winning novella is a celebration of resilience and our power to find family, love and hope – sometimes a world away.