Review: Broken Verses

Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Fourteen years ago, famous Pakistani activist Samina Akram disappeared. Two years earlier, her lover, Pakistan's greatest poet, was beaten to death by government thugs. In present-day Karachi, her daughter Aasmaani has just discovered a letter in the couple's private code—a letter that could only have been written recently."

This book has many layers but I was also interested in the portrayal of modern day Pakistan - one woman is an activist, another an actress, another works for a TV station. Aasmaani was never her mother's priority but she is still searching for her and it is heartbreaking.

I had previously read Home Fires by the same author, which was largely set outside of Pakistan, and wanted to read something set in the country for my Around the World reading project. Most of this novel is set in Karachi but some characters also go to Islamabad. Ramzan (we sometimes call it Ramadan) is also observed during the novel, which is interesting when everyone "should" be observing it.

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