Longlisted for the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
Fatima Bhutto is the niece of Benazir Bhutto who publicly accused her aunt of murdering her father Murtaza while she, aged 14, protected her baby brother. She tells of her ordeal in her memoir Songs of Blood and Sword. This is her first novel which she has obviously drawn from her own experience. It tells of a family of three brothers in a small town on the Pakistan/Afghan border. One is a doctor, married but with a wife badly damaged by the death (by terrorists) of their child, one a student having escaped to America to study and one caught in the insanity of local freedom fighters as he follows his love, a strong woman. Set over one day it is an exquisite book. Powerful, hypnotic, hugely sad yet very wonderful, this is a must read.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Longlisted for the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
Fatima Bhutto's stunning debut novel The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, begins and ends one rain swept Friday morning in Mir Ali, a small town in Pakistan's Tribal Areas close to the Afghan border.
Three brothers meet for breakfast. Soon after, the eldest, recently returned from America, hails a taxi to the local mosque. The second, a doctor, goes to check in at his hospital. His troubled wife does not join the family that morning. No one knows where Mina goes these days. And the youngest, the idealist, leaves for town on a motorbike. Seated behind him is a beautiful, fragile girl whose life and thoughts are overwhelmed by the war that has enveloped the place of her birth.
Three hours later their day will end in devastating circumstances.
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon chronicles the lives of five young people trying to live and love in a world on fire. Individuals are pushed to make terrible choices. And, as the events of this single morning unfold, one woman is at the centre of it all.
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Family Drama, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon is available in Paperback
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon was written by Fatima Bhutto and published by Penguin Books Ltd
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon has 230 pages
£14.39
