Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Ahmad, J. 2011 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A haunting literary debut set in the forbidding remote tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Traditions that have lasted for centuries, both brutal and beautiful, create a rigid structure for life in the wild, astonishing place where Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan meet-the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It is a formidable world, and the people who live there are constantly subjected to extremes-of place and of culture.
The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from their tribe, who have traveled to the middle of nowhere to escape the cruel punishments meted out upon those who transgress the boundaries of marriage and family. Their son, Tor Baz, descended from both chiefs and outlaws, becomes "The Wandering Falcon," a character who travels among the tribes, over the mountains and the plains, into the towns and the tents that constitute the homes of the tribal people. The media today speak about this unimaginably remote region, a geopolitical hotbed of conspiracies, drone attacks, and conflict, but in the rich, dramatic tones of a master storyteller, this stunning, honor-bound culture is revealed from the inside.
Jamil Ahmad has written an unforgettable portrait of a world of custom and compassion, of love and cruelty, of hardship and survival, a place fragile, unknown, and unforgiving.
Author Notes
Jamil Ahmad was born in Pakistan in 1932. He joined the civil service in 1954 and later became commissioner of Swat and commissioner of Waziristan. He only book, The Wandering Falcon, which was published while he was in his 80s, was a collection of short stories about life in the border region of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. It was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011 and was also a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. He died after a long illness in July 2014 at the age of 83.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
To the nomadic tribes inhabiting the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Lands), a harsh border region between Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, "home and permanency meant only a stay long enough to wash clothes or to affix the cradles to the trees." As a member of the Pakistani Civil Service, Ahmad served as the development commissioner for the frontier and in a minister position in Pakistan's embassy in Kabul during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In his first novel (at the age of 80), he proves a masterful guide to the landscape and to the captivating art of storytelling at its finest. This is a shadowy, enchanting journey. From the searing winds of the desert to the plains where sheep spend the winter grazing, daily life is hardscrabble at best and, more often than not, tragically violent. Over the course of the novel, the mysterious Tor Baz ("Wandering Falcon") weaves in and out of view, remaining as elusive and magnetic to readers as he does to those he encounters; familiar to everyone, he belongs to no one. Even as women are sold, children abandoned, and teachers kidnapped, the moment-to-moment impossibilities of these people reveal a spreading despair that precedes the forced end to these ancient ways of life. No country in which nomads roam recognizes them as legitimate: "In this clash, the state, as always, proved stronger than the individual." A gripping book, as important for illuminating the current state of this region as it is timeless in its beautiful imagery and rhythmic prose. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Compounding the unusualness of being an 80-year-old first novelist, Ahmad gives his work the unusual form of a progression of stories featuring a character who is the protagonist of the novel but not of any of the stories. In the first, a young couple staggers into a military outpost on Pakistan's western border, requesting refuge and receiving food and shelte. for as long as you want to stay. Soon, a son is born; five years later, the couple's tribesmen arrive. He shoots her dead; they stone him to death, and the boy is abandoned. His growth from small child to young man ready to take a wife strings the subsequent stories together. Intertribal pecking orders and protocols repeatedly lead to murderous violence, and the protagonist is left behind more than once again. Drawing on his decades of welfare work in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Ahmad aims to sear the region's harsh and stringent tribal culture indelibly into the reader's consciousness. Writing as sparely as any Hemingway, he succeeds brilliantly.--Olson, Ra. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This is an accomplished and important debut novel by an 80-year-old former civil servant from Pakistan. It provides a rare and sympathetic glimpse into a world that most Westerners know only through news reports related to military operations. Ahmad takes as his subject the vanishing way of life among the tribes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) shared by Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, opening his story with a young couple who have fled there to avoid punishment for having violated tribal strictures. (Their son becomes the "wandering falcon" of the title.) The FATA is a remote and desolate area where centuries-old cultures have resisted modern influence almost completely. This is changing, however, and Ahmad-who knows the area well-depicts the clash between ancient rhythms of life in the FATA and the new political realities. VERDICT A fascinating journey; essential reading. [See Prepub Alert, 4/11/11.]-Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.