the next good book

The Return of Faraz Ali

By Aamina Ahmad

9/10
(9/10)

331 pages

What’s it about?

Faraz Ali is a policeman in Lahore, Pakistan when he is sent to cover up the murder of a young girl in the red light district.  He unexpectedly finds it difficult to cover up the truth.   He soon finds himself dealing with his own past- as well as his future.

What did it make me think about?

Pakistan and how little I know of it.  I am googling it as soon as I finish this review. “Where the hell was home, really, he wondered.  He was supposed to go back to the house by Shimla Pahari after the war; but he’s spent as much of his life in England as he had in India, he dreamed in English, he thought in it now, mostly.  He liked the idea of this Pakistan people spoke of.  India, so vast, still so much of it unknown to him, felt like a country he didn’t know every time he left the small world of Lahore.”

Should I read it?

This is a book that I think has been missed!  It not only has a great plot, but the characters were so well written.  This novel takes you back and forth in time and introduces you to lots of different people and places.  If you are a chart maker you will want to keep a pencil handy.  I HIGHLY recommend this novel for those that like historical fiction or a good mystery.

Quote-

“Was this what aging was?  Not the lines, not the muscles turning flaccid or the skin drying out.  It was the way in which the defeats of your life showed themselves; the evidence of your surrender in the listlessness of your eyes.  She realized she didn’t care as much as she thought she would, and this, too, was a surprise.  Really when she looked at her life, what had her beauty ever brought her?”

What’s it about?

Faraz Ali is a policeman in Lahore, Pakistan when he is sent to cover up the murder of a young girl in the red light district.  He unexpectedly finds it difficult to cover up the truth.   He soon finds himself dealing with his own past- as well as his future.

What did it make me think about?

Pakistan and how little I know of it.  I am googling it as soon as I finish this review. “Where the hell was home, really, he wondered.  He was supposed to go back to the house by Shimla Pahari after the war; but he’s spent as much of his life in England as he had in India, he dreamed in English, he thought in it now, mostly.  He liked the idea of this Pakistan people spoke of.  India, so vast, still so much of it unknown to him, felt like a country he didn’t know every time he left the small world of Lahore.”

Should I read it?

This is a book that I think has been missed!  It not only has a great plot, but the characters were so well written.  This novel takes you back and forth in time and introduces you to lots of different people and places.  If you are a chart maker you will want to keep a pencil handy.  I HIGHLY recommend this novel for those that like historical fiction or a good mystery.

Quote-

“Was this what aging was?  Not the lines, not the muscles turning flaccid or the skin drying out.  It was the way in which the defeats of your life showed themselves; the evidence of your surrender in the listlessness of your eyes.  She realized she didn’t care as much as she thought she would, and this, too, was a surprise.  Really when she looked at her life, what had her beauty ever brought her?”

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