'The mullah left the fort with the boy walking beside him and the little puppy, who had been with his new owner less than a month, trotting behind'. The boy - known as Tor Baz, the wandering falcon - journeys between tribes. Where does he come from, and what is his story? He meets men who fight under different flags, and women who risk everything if they break their society's code of honour. Set in the decades before the rise of the Taliban, Jamil Ahmad's stunning debut takes us to the essence of human life in the forbidden areas where the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet. The media today speak often about 'the tribal areas' - a remote region; a hotbed of conspiracies, drone attacks and conflict. Now, for the first time, this traditional, honour-bound culture is revealed from the inside. Jamil Ahmad is seventy-eight years old and has spent long years among the people of the frontier. In "The Wandering Falcon", he describes a world of custom and cruelty, of love and gentleness, of hardship and survival, a fragile, unforgiving world that is changing as modern forces make themselves known. With the fate-defying story of Tor Baz, he has written an unforgettable novel of insight, compassion and timeless wisdom.
| ISBN | 0241145155 | | Pages | 240 | | ISBN13 | 9780241145159
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 342 | | Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Hamish Hamilton Ltd | | Height (mm) | 223 | | Format | Hardback | | Width (mm) | 149 | | Publication date | 30 Jun 2011 | | Spine width (mm) | 21 | | DEWEY | 891.439372 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | |
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One of "Publishers Weekly"'s Best Books of 2011 "Mr. Ahmad's deep understanding of his characters shows what a powerful truth teller fiction can be." -"The New York Times" "[Y]ou instantly care so much about that boy and his fate that you can hardly stand to stop reading. The early chapters are reminiscent of masterpieces like Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," which also features a boy alone in a gorgeous but harsh and often terrifying desert landscape.... [T]he characters, the tales, and the landscape are rendered with clarity, sympathy, and insight. The author makes us travel with him.... The book offers a rich picture of the "mountainous, lawless tribal areas" we have previously known mainly for bullets and bombs." -Steve Inskeep, NPR "A striking debut...The power and beauty of these stories are unparalleled in most fiction to come out of south Asia." -"The Guardian" "[W]ritten with such a terrible beauty...With this novel Ahmad h
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