Hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published May 20, 2008 by Knopf.
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of Fury Squadron, is determined to understand what or who pushed his father to commit suicide--and to avenge his death. His father, one of Zia ul-Haq's colonels, may or may not have been involved in the conspiracies and coincidences leading to the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed Pakistan's dictator General Zia ul-Haq. His search immerses him in a snarl of events: Americans in Pakistan, Soviets in Afghanistan, dollars in every hand.
I picked it up because at the time I had a Pakistani brother-in-law. It's good, though, whether you have a personal connection or not. Somehow Hanif manages to be both hysterically funny and horrifying at the same time.
The effusive praise from critics, featured on the cover, praise the wit and humor that is certainly there in spades- albeit a gallows sort of humor: a blind woman in prison for being raped, state-sanctioned torture, etc.. General Zia's last year in power before he dies in a plane crash is the subject, and it is always a pleasure to see a foolish ruler brought low with the mighty pen. Since I knew nothing about Pakistan in the 80's or General Zia, this will be how I remember him (a vain, foolish, pious, grasping fellow). But my biggest takeaway was the superb writing, the brave, sardonic and even heroic protagonist and his tender-hearted, imaginative lover and the unique setting- Pakistan in the 80's.
