A colleague passed this on to me, as "another one for bookcrossing".
As it happens, I'm off to the meet-up this evening, so it can come with me and try to find a new home.

Transferred with us from the OBCZ at the Stamford Arms to the brand new OBCZ at the Barley Mow, 104 Horseferry Rd, Westminster, SW1.
we're a short walk from Victoria, Westminster and St James Park stations Stations, and on the 507 bus route from Waterloo (note this service only runs on weekdays).

RELEASE NOTES:

Picked up from the OBCZ at the Barley Mow earlier today. I've been wanting to read this for a while only when I got home and went to put it on my "to be read" pile, I see I already have a copy waiting to be read. Sorry, I have a bad habit of not remembering what I've picked up unless I've actually read it. I'll be re-releasing this one soon.

'A superb achievement, a tender, nuanced and wonderfully imagined account of a Pakistani family in contemporary England' - Colm Toiban, The Guardian.

Long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2004. Winner of the Kiriyama Prize in 2005.

From the back of the book: In an unnamed English town, Jugma and his lover Chanda have disappeared. Rumours abound in the close-knit Pakistani community and then on a snow-covered January morning Chanda's brothers are arrested for murder. Telling the story of the next 12 months, Maps for Lost Lovers open the heart of a family at the crossroads of culture, community, nationality and religion, and expresses their pain in language that is arrestingly poetic.

Somehow I've managed to get two copies, so I'm opening this book up as a book ray (ie I don't want it back at the end of its travels). If you would like to join, please send me a PM with your name and country of where you live. Please also say if are not prepared to post internationally - otherwise I will assume that you can.(I'll try to order the list so that postage costs are kept to a minimum).

This is a fairly light book (369pp). Even with adequate packaging, it should cost about £1.00 to send domestically in the UK and about £1.50 to send economy mail overseas.

Some brief "rules"
* Journal the book when you receive it.
* PM the next person on the list for their address when you receive it so as to try to avoid hold-ups later on.
* If you don't hear from the next participant within a few days, PM them again. If after a few more days you still haven't heard from them, PM me to let me know, and move on to the next person on the list.
* Read (and hopefully enjoy!) Don't feel pressurised to read it in a rush (and remember that life gets in the way sometimes for all of us!) but if you need to keep hold of the book for longer than say six weeks or a couple of months, please journal to let us know.
* Journal again when you've read it to let us know what you think of it!
* Surface/economy mail is fine, but please make a note in a journal entry so the person you're sending to has a rough idea of when to expect it.

Participants (in order)
AFIR (UK, anywhere)
Valer1e (UK, anywhere)
perditaxknit (UK, anywhere)
dododumpling (UK, prefers UK)
RedDeerForum (UK, anywhere)currently here
Hellie (UK)
Qimp (Holland)
okyrhoe (Greece, anywhere)
adrienne10 (USA, anywhere)
Joanthro (USA, anywhere)
Sherlockfan (NZ, NZ or Australia - but international ok if necessary)

The last person on the list gets to decide what to do with the book next.

RELEASE NOTES:

This one is starting its travels as a ray later today.

Received as part of a ray from rivercassini.
Will journal it as soon as I've read it. Many thanks rivercassini

This is a lovely book, it is very descriptive and wonderfully written. An educational insight to the Pakistan culture and I throughly enjoyed it. I hope everyone on the ring enjoys it as much as I did.
Will post it on as soon as I have the address of the next person.

Received today. Many thanks AFIR. I look forward to reading it.

There's not many books I would rate this highly.

I found it absolutley fascintaing and unputdownable.

The glimpse into another culture was very interesting and raised many questions in my head. I'm sure i w3ill be thinking of this book for a long time and hopefully re-read it in the medium future.I would very much like to discuss this book with other readers.

I shall be watching this author for subsequent books and looking out for his previous one.

Many thanks for recommending this book and giving me the opportunity to read it.

I'm PMing perditaxknit for address today. Sorry I forgot to do it when I received it.

perditaxknit has asked to be left out of this as she's heard it on the radio.

Have PMd dododumpling for address.

This arrived yesterday, along with a rather nice postcard ... ;)

Thanks to Rivercassini for setting up the ray and Valer1e for posting to me. I'm partway through a rather weighty tome at the moment but hope to make a start on this within a week or so.

In common with the other readers, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The language is beautiful, so descriptive. I think one of my favourite lines is near the beginning - typically, of course, I can't find it now I want to journal it! But it goes something like this: The floor is lumpy and uneven with all the problems that have been brushed under the carpet. I loved that image, and it sets the background for this story so well. It's hard to believe that English isn't the author's first language.

The book offered an insight into a culture I don't really know anything about, and like Valer1e says, I think I'll continue to ponder the issues raised for a long time. I doubt I would have picked it up in a bookshop, though, so thanks to Rivercassini for the chance to read it.

I've contacted Hellie for her address, and this book is ready to send off as soon as I hear from her.

I haven't heard from Hellie, so I'm sending this on to its next reader, RedDeerForum.

recieved in the post