Nasreen Akhtar, the ‘real Asian Bridget Jones’, has just been named one of  ten finalists up for the Book to Talk About award 2009 for her raw and inspiring memoir about her search for love online, ‘Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet)’ (greenbirds, £12.99).

Ever since the book was released by small independent publisher greenbirds which she set up with help from the Prince’s Trust, 34 year old Nasreen, who also illustrated and designed the book’s striking cover, has been inundated by outstanding reader response.

The  comments board on the Books to Talk about 2009 website is buzzing with praise. So too at the Daily Telegraph when it announced the long list. Amazon readers have published ravishing reviews awarding it an average rating of the highest possible five stars. The book was Asian Woman magazine’s Book of the Month (Issue 36).

Said Nasreen:

“The scary part about dreams is when they start to come true! I am delighted both as the author and the publisher of the book that it has started its journey of a thousand miles with such wonderful first steps!”

Now she hopes her book will win the coveted award, chosen by readers who can vote for her book here on the Spread the Word website (http://www.spread-the-word.org.uk/index.asp). Spread the Word is part of World Book Day, the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland. Voting reopens on 30th January. The winner will be announced on World Book Day – Thursday 5th March 2009.

Nasreen is available for interviews for all media.

Notes to Editors:
Synopsis:

Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet) takes readers into the uncertain world of internet dating. Nasreen Akhtar is a thirty-something single British Asian Muslim who is well past her cultural best-before date. After years of shying away from all things marital, she discovers an unexpected yearning for love.

Following a toe-curling interview (‘What is your name, Nasreen?’) for an arranged marriage, the author turns to the web for the one ‘extraordinary guy who would be happy with an ordinary girl’.

The internet hides more extraordinary guys than Nasreen imagines: losers, liars, chancers, and chiselled hunks. Amid the joy and heartbreak, she finds friendship, faith, and a belief that fate must run its course.

Nasreen’s raw, funny, and inspiring memoir resonates across the cultural divide of modern Britain. South Asian readers recognise the conflicting tensions of family, independence, marriage and religion; Westerners are drawn to the simple humanity of a woman who aches for love in an imperfect world. This is a story for anyone who has ever believed that they were born to love and be loved.

About the Author

Nasreen Akhtar holds a Masters’ degree in Applied Linguistics from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is the proprietor of the publishing imprint greenbirds. She was born in 1974 and came to the UK with her Pakistani parents when she was 4 years old. Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet) is her first book.

* Extent: 331 pp
* Format: 198mm x 129mm, pb
* RRP: £12.99
* Language: English

*  http://www.greenbirds.co.uk

For review copies/interviews with Nasreen, please contact:

Suzanne Noble @Stunning PR, Tel: 0203 355 1529/07957 371840 or suzanne@stunningpr.com

Nasreen Akhtar, a 34 year old British Asian female of Pakistani origin, has been longlisted for the award for her self-published book, ‘Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet)’ (Greenbirds, £12.99).

Nasreen published her memoir about trying to find a partner on the web after receiving a grant from the Princes Trust.  Now she hopes her book will be one of the final ten chosen as The Book to Talk About 2009 following her inclusion on the longlist of 50 titles being announced on 17th October. Nasreen is available for interviews for all media.

Synopsis:
Nasreen is a thirtysomething British Asian female of Pakistani origin, proud to be a Muslim raised in the West. Like any human being, she wants to share her life with someone. Rebelling against the thought of marrying a man she does not know; one that she does not love, she takes matters into her own hand and courageously  dives  into  cyberspace,  illiterate  to  the  etiquettes  of  dating and relationships, but with a stubborn hope that somewhere, somehow fate will be kind and bring to her path the man for whom she has waited; a man who will accept her the way she is, the woman she is inside and not just for her physical beauty.

Powerfully written with sincerity and deep emotion, Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet) traces the remarkable journey of a hopeful soul seeking something that every human being craves: to love and be loved.

About the Author
Nasreen Akhtar holds a postgraduate degree in Linguistics from Goldsmith’s  College, University of London. She is the proprietor of the publishing imprint  greenbirds. She was born in 1974 and came to the UK with her Pakistani parents when she was 4 years old.

• Extent: 331 pp
• Format: 198mm x 129mm, pb
• RRP: £12.99
• Language: English

For review copies/interviews with Nasreen, please contact:
Suzanne Noble @Stunning PR, Tel:  0203 355 1529 or Suzanne@stunningpr.com

EXTENDED PRESS RELEASE CAN BE FOUND HERE