The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
'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 peoples 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.
Jamil Ahmad began his career in the region in the 1950s, and was an official in the Pakistani embassy in Kabul at the time of the Soviet invasion in 1979. He was encouraged to write by his wife Helga, who painstakingly typed the handwritten manuscript on a typewriter with German keys. He lives in Islamabad, Pakistan.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780241145159 |
| ISBN 10 | 0241145155 |
| Title | The Wandering Falcon |
| Author | Jamil Ahmad |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2011-06-30 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |