Pakistan, America and love battle for a young man’s heart

Uzma Aslam Khan’s novel “Trespassing” bills itself as a love story, a tale of forbidden lust a la the Capulets and Montagues. But in tackling culture clash, war and international relations, the book strives to be more than a tale of dangerous love.

The relationship between Daanish and Dia is the story around which all others revolve in “Trespassing,” which Khan presents as novellas within the larger work, with each individual tale leaping back and forth in time. Daanish is a young Pakistani man studying in America who returns to Karachi for his father’s funeral. Dia is a young, free-thinking woman who refuses to fall into the subservient role Pakistan’s tradition-rich but male-dominated society expects of her.

Through somewhat comical circumstance, their two paths cross and a bond evolves — much to the consternation of their families, who have their own reasons for maintaining a certain distance…