Nafisa Haji’s new book, “The Writing on My Forehead,” is set in the United States, Britain and Pakistan.

“The Writing on My Forehead: A Novel” by Nafisa Haji (William Morrow, 308 pgs., $24.99)

Loss, forgiveness, love, redemption. The themes in Haji’s novel run through all our lives.

Her deeply moving and beautifully written novel about different generations of an Indo-Pakistani family takes the reader on an emotional journey into how family and traditions define us and our choices in life.

It’s a fast read, but its deeper meaning resonates long after the last page.

Haji’s novel is set across countries — in the United States, Britain and Pakistan.

The reader sees the world through Saira Qader’s eyes during certain points from childhood in California until she is an adult traveling the world as a journalist. As a child she realizes that her grandfather left her Nanima, or grandmother Zahida, years ago for a younger, British woman. Casting Zahida aside, he and the woman have three children. Saira’s mother refuses to accept these people into her life or even speak about them.

So the story unfolds as Saira — the only one in her immediate family — travels to Pakistan, to attend the wedding of her Indo-Pakistani cousin, who has invited the woman and her children. Her grandfather has died.

Haji captures the pain and suffering this man inflicted upon his family when he chose a new life and shrugged off the old one. In one passage Zahida’s sister, Adeeba talks:

“But the years faded away as I watched her wrestle with the magnitude of what she had lost. Zahida was bewildered. She had been everything she was supposed to be — an obedient daughter-in-law, a dutiful wife, a caring mother, a pious woman — and she had lost everything.”

Toward the end of the book, Saira, who has been away working as a reporter, comes home because her mother dying. She asks her mother if she is angry that she left.

“You kept in touch. Those letters you sent were from far away. They made me realize and learn what I should have learned long ago. About anger and forgiveness,” her mother says.

Her mother has finally begun a relationship with her step-siblings.

“There is no room — no time — in this short life, to stay angry and hold grudges,” she said.