Q&A with Nura Maznavi

 

Photo by Jonty Young

 

 

Nura Maznavi is the author of the new novel Yours, Eventually, which is an updated version of Jane Austen's classic novel Persuasion. Her other books include Love, InshAllah. Also an attorney, she lives in Southern California.

 

Q: What inspired you to write this updated take on Jane Austen’s Persuasion?

 

A: I first read Jane Austen in high school and loved everything about the world she created in Pride and Prejudice. When it came to love, family and community, it felt so familiar to me and the South Asian American Muslim community in which I was raised.

 

In college I took a Jane Austen class and read the rest of her novels (and watched all the movie adaptations!). I thought Persuasion was Jane Austen’s best love story. Romance, heartbreak, a second chance! It had it all.

 

It also struck me that Persuasion lent itself well to an adaptation set in my community. Family plays such a huge role in our search for a partner and I personally knew people whose engagements were broken off because of parental disapproval. I thought it would be fun to write a story to reflect this sometimes messy reality.

 

Q: How did you create your characters Asma and Farooq, and what did you see as the right balance between your characters and Austen’s originals?

 

A: In Persuasion, I rooted for Anne Elliot because I felt her heartbreak, but I also wished she had more spice, like Jane Austen’s most famous heroine, Elizabeth Bennet.

 

When creating Asma, I wanted to give her the weight of responsibility of Anne Elliot, but with an outlet – one that Anne wouldn’t necessarily have had available to her given her time and place.

 

I knew I had to make Asma a successful professional and I decided on medicine because it still allowed her to be a caretaker. I wanted to show how we sometimes live very different lives – and see ourselves differently – at work than we do around our close family and friends.

 

Since this was set in the San Francisco Bay Area, I knew Farooq had to be a startup hundred millionaire who was kicked to the curb as a college dropout. I think he tracks closely to Captain Wentworth in Persuasion – rich, handsome, and aggrieved – although a bit more in touch with his feelings!

Q: How was the novel's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: I worked on this book for eight years and during that whole time, it had a different title. Right after I sold the manuscript, we found out that two other books were to be released around the same time with similar titles! We had to pivot quickly and this one just presented itself out of nowhere.

 

And I’m so glad, because I think it perfectly captures the idea of love delayed and a second chance with the one who got away (or, in this case, the one who Asma sent away!).

 

Q: The writer Nikki Payne said of the book, “Yours, Eventually by Nura Maznavi is a sharp, hilarious, and unapologetically real take on love, legacy, and getting what you truly want—despite what your aunties say.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: This was such a great quote – I love Nikki’s work and was so glad she understood mine.

 

I think there’s a fine line you have to balance living in a close-knit community and enjoying the support that comes along with it without being suffocated.

 

I see Asma threading that line throughout the story – she has to figure out herself and what she wants while tuning out the noise of what everyone else thinks and might say.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next novel! It’s about a type-A overachiever whose life spirals out of her control two weeks before her wedding.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Often, stories about Muslim women and immigrant families are heavy and intense. I wanted to write something that truly reflected the community in which I was raised – one that is funny, loving and full of joy…even if they sometimes drive you crazy.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb