Uzma Jalaluddin is known for taking classic romantic comedies and giving them a modern Muslim twist. She first did it with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with her debut novel Ayesha at Last. Then she did it with You've Got Mail, with her breakout novel Hana Khan Carries On.

Hana Khan Carries On is being adapted into a film by Mindy Kaling. It's currently on the Canada Reads 2023 longlist.

And now she's doing it again: her next novel is called Much Ado About Nada, which is a take on Austen's Persuasion.

Much Ado About Nada is about Nada Syed, who is almost 30 and still living at home with her parents. She dreams of turning her app Ask Apa into a tech success, but her parents are focused on her finding a partner and getting married. Her best friend Haleema wants things to turn around for Nada and thinks there's no better place to do that than at a large Muslim conference downtown. But when Nada finds out Haleema's fiance Zayn and his brother Baz will be there, she knows she can't go. No matter what. Why? Because her and Baz have history.

Much Ado About Nada will be published on June 13, 2023.

Jalaluddin is also a teacher and parenting columnist and she currently lives in Ontario.

You can read an excerpt from Much Ado About Nada below.

Nada Syed was no coward; at 28 years old, she had simply learned that strategic retreat was the better part of valour.

Cell phone clutched in one hand, black ballet flats in the other, cream-coloured hijab loosely draped over her short dark hair, she tiptoed down the spiral oak staircase of the home she shared with her parents and two brothers. She darted into the main floor laundry room, where the side door was located. From there it was a few steps to the driveway, her car, and freedom.

Her phone pinged with another message from her best friend Haleema: I'll be there soon! We're going to have so much fun at the convention!

Nada shuddered. There were few things she could think of that would be worse than being forced to attend the Islamic convention over the July long weekend. Perhaps skinny dipping in the Arctic Ocean. Or being forced to eat her mother's offal-and-tongue nihari curry.

Her phone pinged again. Haleema really didn't give up; that persistence had fuelled her rise to the top of her graduate engineering programming, but right now Nada wished her friend had the profile of a party-forward humanities major, because she needed to concentrate: coordinating a weekend sneak-out was tricky. Her mother, Narjis Syed, guarded their front door more zealously than a nightclub bouncer, and asked more questions. Nada glanced at her phone, reading her friend's message quickly.

Aren't you excited? Girls' weekend! Then: Babe? Where's my sister from another mister? Nada? HELLOOOOOOO????

She wasn't going to stop until Nada responded. Carefully dropping her shoes and nosing into them, she texted her friend the perfect decoy message. Just getting ready. Big plans for the weekend! xxx.

Nada knew two things: 1) She couldn't attend the convention for reasons that also couldn't be disclosed to anyone, especially not Haleema, and 2) By the time her habitually late bff showed up at her house, she would be long gone, snacking on a delicious latte and blueberry scone from her favourite cafe.

One might wonder why a 28-year-old woman didn't simply stroll out of her parents' house as if she owned the place, flip her busybody neighbours a flirty goodbye and head to wherever the hell she wanted. That person was clearly not the daughter of traditional South Asian parents, nor did they live in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood in the east end of Toronto, a.k.a "the nosiest place on Earth." And they were particularly not the daughter of Narjis Syed — mother of three, interferer of all.

The side door escape was the perfect plan, Nada thought, opening the door to the laundry room.

"Beta, what are you doing?" Narjis straightened in front of the washing machine, where she was sorting through a pile of clothing. Busted.

Excerpted from Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin. Copyright © 2023 Amy Jones. Published by HarperAvenue, a division of HarperCollins. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.