Anjum N. Choudhury had a nomadic childhood, moving between Dhaka, Kathmandu, New Delhi and the Hague. Fiction was one of the few constants in her life, eventually evolving into a creative outlet. The Divining Thread is her first published novella. It started out as a short story that was rejected by every fantasy magazine she'd submitted it to, which in hindsight turned out to be for the best. Anjum became a policy researcher after earning a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Mount Holyoke College. Currently based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she is getting her M.Sc. in Global Public Policy with a special focus on Climate Policy from SOAS University of London.
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Zarene is about to marry the prince of Shandrabad. A young woman of high standing and impeccable upbringing, she can only be faulted for one thing: her fixation on dressmaking.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Her world is turned upside down when she encounters a ghagra that divines the future. Haunted by the secrets it shares with her in her waking hours and her dreams, she makes it her sole purpose in life to find its maker and become their apprentice. Knowledge of the dressmaker’s whereabouts is not easy to come by. The ghagra offers up clues pointing to a woman, a creature descended from paradise known to mortal men as the howr. An old wives’ tale. A myth.</p><p><div class="other-info" style="margin: 25px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;"></div></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Zarene pieces together the puzzle, befriending a young drifter with a terrible secret along the way, travelling to distant lands and braving the unknown. The price for her heart’s desire is steep, the fate awaiting her more than she ever bargained for.</p>
