ParamitA
Paramita means "perfection" in Sanskrit, and in 2100, it is the name of the nation previously known as the United States of America, where money has been outlawed and medicine is the new currency. In 2020, Gaia is selected by President Barnett to discover a life-saving vaccine. 80 years in the future, Gaia is the ruling matriarch of Paramita and her granddaughter Era is given a similar challenge to discover a vaccine for a new variant virus. On the surface, Paramita appears to be a perfect world where violence has been eradicated through the invention of the Equalizer, a microchip implanted in every person's brain, connected to the frontal lobe and the amygdala, that regulates one's hormones, memories, emotions, and thoughts. Paramita is also free of illness, poverty, greed, and prejudice. The two classes of human beings are the Guardians and the Children. The Guardians protect the Children by giving them medicine, purpose, and security. The Children serve the Guardians by being essential workers. Thus, the nation of Paramita functions harmoniously in an intricate framework of codependency.
So it seems.
As Gaia's and Era's narratives unfold, connected in both real-time and across time, they travel toward each other in a cliffhanger-climax of shocking, entwined destiny and betrayal. Set against our recent political landscape, the global pandemic, and our racial reckoning, Paramita examines the complexity of female power, our common capacity for both heroism and "villainy," and asks the questions, "If you came into unimaginable power, how would you choose to use it? What lengths would you go to protect those you love? Are there any limits? And if you learned the secret to keeping that level of power and perfection alive, would you abandon a life of protected privilege, or remain culpable and complicit in the beautiful deceit?"
Ultimately, amidst the politics, science, and philosophical debate, at its core Paramita is about a mother protecting her children, and a daughter's search for her mother.
Paramita is Book One of a trilogy. Paramita is followed by Motherland and Gaia's War.
Early accolades:
“Reema Zaman is a wonder. Born up and through an ancient Sanskrit word, Paramita emerges from the voices and bodies of mothers, daughters, and granddaughters. Through a dual timeline and split narrations, Zaman traces a female family lineage that brings to the surface capitalism, the worth of women's bodies, the ethos of creation stories, of viruses, vaccines, science, history, and the myths we live by. Between Gaia, a scientist and a reluctant leader tasked with finding a vaccine to fight a global virus, and her granddaughter Era, the storytelling vibrates with the violence of creation and destruction. Like the primordial and planetary symbol of Gaea and all the women who have carried history in their bodies while the patriarchal order brutally endeavored to destroy them, Paramita births a matriarchal order that upends all worlds. This book blazes.”
— Lidia Yuknavitch, Author of the bestselling The Book of Joan, The Chronology of Water, Verge, and others
“In Paramita, Reema Zaman has created a world that is both magical and unnerving, one in which I was immediately drawn in and felt connected to her characters, present and future. As a woman, as a human, I was engrossed in both the action and themes her characters grapple with. Necessary reading; this is sure to become a classic within the modern feminist dystopian canon.”
— Erin Khar, author of STRUNG OUT
“This breathtaking novel feels desperate and urgent, not just for the characters, but for the reader. In a dystopian world that so closely mirrors our own, the stakes reach heights that feel uncomfortable and frighteningly real. Yet Reema Zaman perfectly tempers terror with beauty, creating a compelling world you can’t turn away from even when you want to. Her compassion for her characters renders even their most unconscionable actions complex and understandable. Her poetic style brings light into the darkest moments. It’s the kind of book that will change the way you see the world and your place in it. Paramita will make you grapple with soul-deep questions about your own humanity, and trust me, you will be better for it. I am stunned by Zaman’s talent.”
— Gemma Hartley, Author of Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward
"In Paramita, Zaman has created a dual-narrative world that tackles the dark realities we are facing today, with an eerily prescient outlook of the future that may be waiting for us. This novel feels dangerous to read; you will know why once you do. Simultaneously an indictment of authoritarianism and a family saga, I am reminded not only of other masterfully crafted dystopian novels (Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games trilogy) but of legendary multi-generational family stories like Pachinko. A brilliant examination of the psychology and power of manipulation, both narrators are directed by forces outside of their control, and while one woman succeeds in gaining her agency in the end, the other meets a devastating conclusion. An addictive page-turner with so many points of conversation, book clubs will clamor over this engrossing novel. I am in awe of Reema Zaman's fierce, inventive spirit. Oh, to have an imagination like hers, what an incredible thing."
— Abby Maslin, Author of Love You Hard
"Reema Zaman doesn’t just transform her characters—she transforms her readers. When I reviewed Reema Zaman's I Am Yours for the New York Journal of Books, I raved of her exquisite talent. I must use the word ‘exquisite’ once again when describing Paramita, because it is so apt. I believe Zaman is a voice of a new form of storytelling that the world desperately needs: radical compassion. Miraculously, through Zaman’s pitch-perfect poetic prose, I found myself empathizing not only with her protagonists but even with her more ‘villainous’ characters and their choices, who in a lesser writer's hands would remain tired two-dimensional tropes. Zaman’s ability to move seamlessly between searing social commentary and deep, compassionate character study will make readers compare Paramita to the works of Ursula LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, and Lidia Yuknavitch. Every chapter of Paramita holds both hope and despair, and not a single plot point or twist feels remotely convoluted—every detail sheds light on our present-day politics and the age-old philosophical questions on the human condition. As a proud feminist, I felt while reading Paramita how much the world needs this novel—it's more than a book, it's a mission. Plus, she writes a goddamn rollercoaster of a love-story. Lastly, never have I experienced any medium of storytelling that ends with a more brilliant and enticing cliffhanger than the one which concludes Paramita. I can’t WAIT for Book Two in the saga."
— Heidi Mastrogiovanni, Author of the Lala Pettibone Trilogy