Broken Verses

by Kamila Shamsie

Book Overview

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. Aasmaani is thirty, single, drifting from job to job. Always left behind whenever Samina followed the Poet into exile, she had...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156030535
• ISBN13: 9780156030533
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Absolutely beautiful

I absolutely loved this book. It was happy, sad, inspiring, intriguing, touching and so intelligent that I could not put it down. Shamsie is one of the most talented storytellers I have encountered in my time. I had a wonderful experience reading this book and I would recommend it to everyone.

Astonishing and Lyrical

This book haunted me while I was reading and afterwards, too. Exquisitely written, intensely felt.

Grace and Power

I've loved Kamila Shamsie's work since the first time I read "Salt and Saffron" in a single night, because I couldn't put it down. She has always written beautifully, with humor and a love of language, but here has matured to add grace and power to her repetoire. Bravo! I loved this book and the author, and can't wait to see how much further she takes her enormous talent. Its quite humbling to realize that this intellectual force comes from someone so young!

Shamsie's back with a BANG!!

Based in Pakistan, this is a touching tale about a mother-daughter relationship. Thirty-one year old Aasmani is still dealing with the disappearance of her mother seventeen years ago, and sorting through her feelings of rejection, resentment and jealousy. Shamsie's style is gripping from cover to cover. Her first thriller is impossible to put down - I read it, beginning to end, from 11pm to 6am! The characters have a way of getting under your skin. The only flaw I found with the book is that the end doesn't quite hold together. But I guess that could be excused since it provides the surprise element. The novel gives an insight into the political life in Pakistan and portrays the plight of women under the Hudood ordinance. Paradoxically, it offers a glimpse into the lives of an unexpectedly liberal and unorthodox section of Pakistani society. The novel is perfect for a rainy day (preferably a Sunday) when you can curl up in your blanket, sip on a cup of warm chai, nibble on hot pakodas and relish Shamsie's creation at leisure.

a powerful and riveting work...her best yet

Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie's latest novel may be her best novel yet. I loved this book. Although there were moments of awkward writing and dialogue in the opening chapters of the book, these were few, and the story and its narrator sweep you toward a powerful conclusion. 30-year-old Aasmaani's mother, a charismatic political activist, disappeared nearly 15 years ago, two years after her lover, Pakistan's greatest poet, was brutally killed by the government. Now, Aasmaani is receiving letters written in a secret language known only by her mother and the poet. Could either or both still be alive? Aasmaani search for the truth and her mother's and the poet's whereabouts becomes an investigate into her own mind and heart. Filled with Shamsie's hallmark humor and lyricism and commentary on Pakistan's history and politics, BROKEN VERSES is a book that lingers in the mind long after the last page.