A Splintering
By Dur E Aziz Amna

Smart and gripping - I read it in one sitting. Tara is a glorious creation, crackling with life and aspiration and sensuality' Kamila Shamsie, author ofand Home Fire'A lacerating novel by a writer of great insight and deep compassion' Mohsin Hamid, author ofand The Last White ManIn a village in rural Pakistan, Tara is waiting and watching. The smell of dung and dust hangs over her world. She is desperate to leave the petty life of the village and escape the iron grip of her violent, unpredictable brother. Marrying a middle-class accountant allows her to escape to the capital, but she soon finds that life as a respectable housewife is not sufficient either. She wants what the rich mothers at her children's school have. She wants what their husbands have. Her desire for wealth and freedom becomes an obsession. But can she truly shake her past? And what of the menacing spectre of her brother, a reminder of the threads that tie her to the life she left behind?Set against a hypnotic, oppressive backdrop of political violence and natural disaster,and A Splinteringand traces the class struggle of a woman stuck between province and metropolis, between motherhood and ambition. Disquieting and utterly gripping, it is an extraordinary achievement by Dur e Aziz Amna, an exploration of a complex and unforgettable character who will risk everything to carve out a life of her own.------------PRAISE FORand A SPLINTERING'An intoxicating, high-voltage mix of female rage, economic ambition, erotic awakening, and biting disdain aimed at the expectations faced by women in contemporary Pakistani society'and Aube Rey Lescure, author ofand River East, River West'A riveting read that boldly calls out patriarchy in Pakistan and beyond'and Mohammed Hanif, author ofand Red Birds'In harrowing detail, Amna shows us how those forces - tradition, patriarchy, capitalism - deform and fracture our inner lives so profoundly that imagination becomes as much a prison as it is a key. I'm in awe of this book'and Chris Knapp, author ofand States of Emergency