Spotlight & Giveaway: The Retreat by Zara Raheem

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Zara Raheem to HJ!

Hi Zara and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Retreat!

 
Hi! Thank you for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Nadia Abbasi’s marriage is falling apart. When she learns that her husband of ten years is having an affair, the only person who can help her cope is her sister, who she hasn’t seen or spoken to since their mother’s funeral over a year ago. As the two sisters work to reconcile their past, they come up with a plan to help Nadia “win” back her husband–a plan that involves her going away on a 3-day wellness retreat with the woman she suspects is her husband’s mistress. Stuck in the middle of the wilderness, Nadia encounters some unexpected complications that ultimately derail her plans and force her to discover more than she expected about herself, her husband, and the nature of love.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“Sometimes things have to come undone in order to be put back together again; it’s in the process of mending that one discovers what it means to be whole.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I’ve never been on a wellness retreat, but I’ve always wanted to go. I definitely think I would enjoy the relaxation aspect of it, but I probably wouldn’t do too well with the plant-based meals.
• Like Nadia, I also have an older sister who I am close to. I’ve always loved stories about sisterhood and sister relationships, so it was really important for me to highlight that in The Retreat.
• Also like Nadia, I’m a huge fan of “junk food.” I love cookies, potato chips; my current obsession is these dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s. So good!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

The main thing that draws Nadia and Aman together is they both represent different possibilities for one another. Despite the differences in their childhood upbringings, they are similar in their wants for happiness and a stable family unit–both of which is lacking in their lives. So, they look to each other to fill in these voids.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

Throughout the book, there are several flashbacks that offer a glimpse into Nadia and Aman’s marriage, especially early on in their relationship. In one of these flashbacks, we see them at the doctor’s office just as they are receiving some devastating news about their last fertility treatment. This scene was particularly heartbreaking to write because it’s the first moment you begin to see cracks in their relationship.

“So, what can we do?” Nadia remembers Aman asking. His voice was small, the disappointment in his face impossible to conceal. Dr. Soufan outlined the next steps, speaking slowly and methodically as Nadia stared at the bookcase behind his desk. Failure pressed down on her as she glanced at the photographs scattered on the shelves—of his wife and three children. Of their completed family and unmitigated access to a world to which neither she nor Aman could seem to gain entry.

On the drive back home, she finally broke down. “I don’t think we should try again. I can’t go through another failed cycle. It’s not working. Nothing we’re doing is working.” The pain of her admission was immense; the only person capable of easing it was Aman. But unlike in the past, Aman’s reaction was silence. He did not reach across the console and take her by the hand. He did not tell her he understood or remind her that the devastation she carried was shared. Instead, when they reached home, he went into his study and closed the door, leaving her on the other side to process the grief on her own.

Readers should read this book….

…if they enjoy stories about love, loss, sisterhood, and second chances!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently working on a third novel. It’s still in the early brainstorming phase, so there’s not too much I can say just yet other than it’s a story I’m really excited about, and I can’t wait to share more soon!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A signed copy of The Retreat. This giveaway will be open to US residents only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Would you ever go on a wellness retreat? Why or why not?

 
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Excerpt from The Retreat:

Nadia was only five, around Noman’s age, when her and Zeba’s father first disappeared. One day he went out to buy some milk from the grocery store, and he simply didn’t return. For months afterward, his clothes still hung in the closet. His shoes stayed lined up at the door. Even his toothbrush, with its frayed bristles and black molded base, sat in the holder untouched. His remnants remained visible from every corner of their home, almost to the point of suffocation, as if they were just holding their breath waiting for him to reappear.

When he finally did, he’d stay for only a weekend or so every few months, but each time their mom would make a big show of it. She’d clean the house from surface to ceiling. She’d prepare pots of food—lamb pulao and goat biryani and mutton korma—all the meats that were too expensive to buy when it was just the three of them. She’d put on a sari and apply kohl around her eyes—the only makeup she owned.

Nadia noticed how their father too made small changes to his appearance. He started combing his hair straight back instead of parting it to the side. Even the convex curves around his middle flattened until he looked trimmer than he did in the wedding albums kept inside their mom’s bed- side table. One day he arrived, and his thick mustache had been completely shaven off. It was the shock in her mom’s face that she remembered most, the way she reached out to touch the space above his upper lip but then jerked her fingers back like they had just grazed a heated surface.

On those weekends, her mom went to great lengths to make things appear normal. The four of them sat around the table for every meal. After dinner, they’d watch movies past the girls’ bedtime, and their father would carry her and Zeba to their beds once they had fallen asleep. But even in those moments when their family began to feel complete again, normalcy never lasted long. As suddenly as their father would reenter their lives, he’d disappear. Where he went and why he never stayed longer than a few days was not discussed, so she and Zeba learned to accept it. And they accepted it for years. Until finally one weekend, he was supposed to come, and he never did. No explanation was ever given.

Nadia remembers being awoken one morning by her mom’s voice on the hallway phone. She was speaking in Urdu, but Nadia could tell it was their father on the other end because she kept saying “jaan.” Her voice rose higher, and she kept referring to an “aurat.” Nadia wondered who that woman might be. Peeking through the crack of her bedroom door, she glimpsed the expression on her mom’s face—the line between her brows as she pled her grievances; the anger and pain flashing in her eyes when she spoke—all of which frightened Nadia for reasons she did not yet understand. She crawled back into bed, feeling anxious and guilty over the little she had overheard.

Though Nadia never mentioned the phone call to her mom, she grew aware of what followed—largely the stretch of time that passed since their father’s last visit. As weeks dragged into months and eventually into years, Nadia stopped wondering when he would come. Intrinsically she knew he was gone, though small traces of him still surrounded her. His yellow-toed socks in the bottom drawer of her mom’s dresser. His deodorant and half-full bottles of Polo in the medicine cabinet collecting dust. Your father will need them when he comes, their mom would say when asked about them, as if she still believed he would. As if the keeping of those items would conjure him into existence, and he might walk through the door at any given moment.

While Nadia silently accepted these delusions—making space for her mom to cope in her own way—she resented the emptiness their father’s absence carved into their lives, the time and energy wasted in preserving his memory when it was clear he had moved on. Though she did not have the power to change the relationship between her parents, she could, however, shape her own future to make it look the way she wanted. And what she wanted more than anything was a life different from her mom’s. A life centered in love and happiness and, most importantly, truth.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In Zara Raheem’s newest novel we meet Nadia Abbasi–whose attempts to save her marriage create unexpected complications–and follow her as she navigates the twists and turns of love. Perfect for fans of Sonali Dev, Christina Lauren, and Sara Desai.

Nadia Abbasi’s marriage is falling apart. It starts with a gifted Roomba, but when she stumbles upon some questionable photos in her husband Aman’s office, everything makes sense–the late-night texting, the sudden interest in fitness, the new clothes. Aman–the kind, thoughtful man she married–is having an affair.

Determined to find out what went wrong in her marriage, Nadia enlists the help of Zeba, the estranged sister she hasn’t seen or spoken to since their mom’s funeral over a year ago. As the two sisters fight to reconcile their past, Nadia realizes her relationship with Aman is not the only one that needs mending.

Nevertheless, the plan itself is simple: confront the “other woman” and win back her husband. Her clumsy attempt at sleuthing leads her from yoga studio–Aman’s latest hangout–to a three-day wellness retreat in the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains. But somewhere in between falling out of tree pose and choking down plant-based meals, Nadia’s plans unravel again when she discovers more than she expected about herself, her husband, and the nature of love
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Meet the Author:

Zara Raheem received her MFA from California State University, Long Beach. She is the recipient of the James I. Murashige Jr. Memorial award in fiction and was selected as one of 2019’s Harriet Williams Emerging Writers. Her debut novel The Marriage Clock was named a “must-read book of the summer” by Cosmopolitan, POPSUGAR, Bustle, Book Riot, among others and has been translated into Italian and Portuguese. Her second novel The Retreat is out now. She resides in Southern California where she teaches English and creative writing.
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