In Saleema Nawaz’s highly anticipated follow up to her award winning novel, Bone and Bread, the author imagines a world racked by a deadly pandemic and the consequences for community and social connections. In this eerily prescient novel, Nawaz shows us what is now a familiar setting of social distancing and other consequences of a world under lockdown. Songs for the End of the World made an appearance on a number of “must-read book lists” for summer 2020 and if the buzz is anything to judge, it hasn’t dampened anyone’s hopes.

Saleema Nawaz speaks to Toronto Star Books Editor, Deborah Dundas, about the writing of the book and how that experience informed her own living through the current Covid-19 pandemic and what surprised her most.

Star Talks: Songs for the End of the World by Saleema Nawaz