The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by Fatima Bhutto This is a novel about a family - three brothers and their wives and lovers - set in a small town in Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan. At the heart of the novel are two women - the beautiful Samarra and the grief-stricken Mina. Through them we see a story of betrayal, of love and how conflict makes cowards of us all. With a brilliant twist, Fatima Bhutto’s novel explores how war forces the individual to make terrible choices, to choose hope over love, the future over the present. Devastatingly moving, fast-paced and deeply resonant, it is an extraordinary debut. Fatima Bhutto was born in Kabul in 1982. She is one of the prominent Bhutto family, which counts among its members Fatima’s aunt, the assassinated former president Benazir Bhutto, and former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Fatima’s maternal grandfather. She is the author of Songs of Blood and Sword, published in 2010, which has been translated into French, Italian, and Hindi. Fatima’s work has appeared in The Guardian, The Financial Times, and the New Statesman. She lives and writes in Karachi, Pakistan. Praise for Songs of Blood and Sword: `Her mesmerising book often has the feel of a detective inquiry into the events of a Jacobean tragedy in which a dynasty is inexorably eliminated...’ Guardian ‘A story with dazzling twists and turns told by a trueblue member of the Bhutto fold.’ The Independent
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:50:57 +0000