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On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Seeing a new work on the shelf written by an author you love can feel like winning the lottery. Shirley Fergenson of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Md., remembers being absolutely captivated by Daniyal Mueenuddin’s 2009 short story collection “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. 

This year — 17 years later — he’s published a new work of fiction, entitled “This Is Where the Serpent Lives.” 

Fergenson says when she saw it, she “practically jumped up and down. I took it home, I read it, and I fell in love with it. It's the same voice. I loved it then, and I love it still.”  

“This Is Where the Serpent Lives” is a sprawling work set in Pakistan over several decades, starting in the 1950s. It’s being marketed as a novel, but Fergenson says it’s actually three short stories and a novella with interlinking characters. 

“It sort of feels like ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ with a little bit of ‘The Godfather’ thrown in,” she says. 

“There are rich landowners, there are servants, forbidden Love, ambition, corruption. There is moral compromise and fluid loyalty. It is a class-and-cast panorama of amazingly rich characters. Each one could have a whole story written about them. They're so full of life.” 

“The main reason to read this book is the exquisite writing, but if you need a story that is one story arc that takes you from the beginning to the end, this is not your story. 

There are linkages, but they're literary, and they are so beautifully told that even in the bleakest, darkest setting, every detail feels like a photograph through an artist's filter. And the final novella is so powerful that it feels like its own full novel.” 

Listen to an NPR interview with the author: 

Daniyal Mueenuddin discusses his debut novel, 'This Is Where the Serpent Lives' : NPR

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Emily Bright

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Shirley Fergenson of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Md., recommends ‘This Is Where the Serpent Lives’ by Daniyal Mueenuddin.

Shirley Fergenson of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Maryland, recommends This Is Where the Serpent Lives’ by Daniyal Mueenuddin.

Ask a Bookseller: ‘This Is Where the Serpent Lives’ by Daniyal Mueenuddin

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