Mariam Navaid Ottimofiore Goes Global With Debut Novel

Pakistani Born Mariam Navaid Ottimofiore Goes Global With Debut Book The Guilty Can't Say Goodbye — Pakistani Born Mariam Navaid Ottimofiore Goes Global With Debut Book The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye

“Ottimofiore takes the reader through a complex tale of smoke and mirrors that plays out across the world. Global nomads and armchair travelers alike will find themselves in this story, as certain themes—of longing and belonging—are universal. An intriguing novel with multiple cultural layers.”
Kristin Louise Duncombe Author of Trailing and Five Flights Up

After more than 20 years, ten countries and four continents, author Mariam Navaid Ottimofiore calls herself an eternal expat. And every time she leaves a country, she writes a goodbye letter to it. But this time, she decided to write an entire book instead. The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye is her unofficial love letter to Portugal. A place where guilt, secrets and the complexities of human relationships are all hidden beneath the surface of endless sunshine, broad smiles and water views. But when three expat women move their families to Portugal, desperately hoping for a fresh start, they soon realise there’s no escaping your past, no matter how far you travel.

Storyline of The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye

Fatima Khan is a Pakistani writer with a gift for languages, a German husband, a ten-year-old daughter, and a determination to escape her mother’s clutches. Kate Miller is a driven, no-nonsense American diplomat who needs to get her way, even as her marriage flounders, and Abena Nyator is a warm and kind-hearted Ghanaian entrepreneur consumed with self-doubt.

Arriving in the alluring seaside town of Cascais, the women’s lives soon intertwine after meeting at their children’s international school. As they each busy themselves with the task of finding familiarity in a foreign country, setting up new lives, they’re also preoccupied, trying to run from past lives. But as they carefully reinvent themselves, their secrets continue to haunt them. Will they be forced to confront the ghosts of their pasts and risk unravelling their newly built lives? Drawing on her own experiences as a global nomad, Mariam brings authenticity and depth to her storytelling, capturing the true essence of expat life and multicultural identities.

From the bustling streets of Karachi to the vibrant neighborhoods of Lisbon, steamy Singapore, Houston, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dubai, Brighton, and Ghana—no matter the country, culture or language, when you touch down on foreign soil, the yearning for identity and belonging is the same the world over.

“With The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye, I wanted to explore the universal themes of longing and belonging against the backdrop of a multicultural world. Through the journeys of Fatima, Kate, and Abena, readers will embark on an emotional rollercoaster that traverses continents and delves deep into the human experience.”
Mariam Ottimofiore

Set against a colourful international backdrop, this novel is testament to the power of forgiveness, redemption, and the enduring bonds of friendship. And, one thing’s for sure, The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye.

‘Mariam has nailed the expat conundrum. The twists, turns and buried secrets build tension as the well-paced prose delves into the intricacies of a nomadic life to produce a lush, sometimes sinister, debut novel.’
Apple Gidley Author of Have You Eaten Rice Today? Crucian Fusion, Transfer, Fireburn, and Expat Life Slice by Slice

Published by Springtime Books, The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye is available where all good books are sold.

About The Author

An author, writer, speaker, researcher and economist, Mariam Ottimofiore jokingly calls herself an ‘expat since birth’. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, she took her first steps in Manama, Bahrain, and attended her first school in New York City, in the United States. By the time she was ten years old, her global childhood meant that she had grown up in three countries, in two languages and was constantly correcting the pronunciation of her name.

When she was 19 years old, Mariam left her home in Karachi with a blue suitcase and a one-way ticket to Boston’s Logan Airport. She has since lived in ten countries as both a Third Culture Kid (TCK) and an expat adult: The Kingdom of Bahrain, the United States (NY, MA, TX), Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Ghana and Portugal.

Ten countries and four continents later, Mariam’s life on the move is messy. A 40-foot container, an expat husband from another corner of the world and three children born in three different countries, 3,000 miles apart with three nationalities have added complexity, challenges and many joys to living a multicultural, multilingual and multi-mobile life.

Mariam currently lives in Cascais, Portugal, with her half-German, half-Italian husband and her German Pakistani-Italian kids, who were born in Singapore, Dubai and Lisbon. Passionate about languages and cultures, Mariam speaks fluent Urdu, English, Hindi and German, along with some Italian, Danish, Arabic, Twi and Portuguese on the side.

Mariam holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in the US and specialized in Economic Development at the University of Sussex in the UK. Her corporate career saw her work in different roles, from investment banking in the US to an Economist in oil trading in Denmark. She made a huge career change to a full-time writer in 2012, when she moved to Singapore as an expat partner, five months pregnant and unemployed.

But it took Mariam yet another international move to Dubai in 2015 to start her blog ‘And Then We Moved To’; a way to support other expat individuals and families facing constant transition. Mariam is also the author of This Messy Mobile Life. Her debut novel The Guilty Can’t Say Goodbye is out now. Mariam has featured in various media over the past 15 years including Oprah Winfrey’s Network (OWN) Super Soul Sunday.