The Wandering Falcon

Nov 24, 2011 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, asia

This is pretty interesting for a novel with no continuous plot and no appreciable character development. It was written by an eighty-year-old man who had a long civil service career in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas around the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. This is where the book is set. The chapters are only loosely connected, giving a broad view of the customs, laws, and lifestyles of the numerous tribes occupying the region. Their values and attitudes are so foreign to the Western mind...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, read-in-2011

read two or three great reviews for this. The Guardian called it 'one of the finest collections of stories to have come out of south Asia in decades'..

These stories are set on the Afghan/Pakistan border 30 or 40 years ago, before the rise of the Taliban, indeed before the Soviet invasion, more concerned with the aftermath of the British empire (some place names have disconcertingly British names). It gives a great insight into the area - a place ravaged by sand storms (wind rages continuously d...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

It took Jamil Ahmad eight decades to pen his debut novel about that border place where Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet…a hidden world ravaged by sand storms and hostile inter-tribe relationships.

It is knit together through the life of one man – Tor Baz – the eponymous wandering falcon. Tor Baz is the orphan son of a Romeo-and-Juliet pair of lovers who defied the tribal code and as a result, were stoned to death by their tribesmen. He becomes a nomad in an unforgiving environment, where the h...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Lynne Perednia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Most of what I know about the part of the world where Pakistan and Afghanistan meet is through Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King. So you know I don't know much.

But I do know that when Daniel Dravot and Peachy tried to use their guns and wits to conquer the tribes in this mountainous, inhospitable region, the tribal culture initially worked for them, then against them.

This view of tribal culture, in which the individual may endure but does not achieve dominance, is but one of the conclusions re...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Kristine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-groups, fiction

Shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Award in 2011, The Wandering Falcon was originally written in the 1970s and set aside for decades before the manuscript fortunately found its way to a publisher that recognized its special nature.

The slim book is a series of loosely-linked, sparely written chapters which offer an insightful socio-cultural glimpse into the lives of the nomadic peoples living in the region near the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran by an author who neither sugar-c...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Rula Bilbeisi rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel did start on the right track. After I read the first chapter, all I wanted to do was to follow the path of this young child, who was born on an unfamiliar land between strangers he would never see again, and in one cruel moment, he witnessed the death of his parents and was left all alone. I thought episodes of anger, resilience and revenge would follow.

However, through the following chapters, I was lost between so many tribes and boarders, poverty and misery, as if starting a new sto...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-from-pakistan

The Wandering Falcon is set in what is now considered to be a very troubled and indeed, very controversial area, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Afghanistan. Of of these areas, Waziristan, has been in the news for some time due to its fame as a Taliban refuge, but Ahmad's focus is on the numerous tribes who occupied this region prior to modern-day conflicts; he examines how they maintain their ways of life as modernity encroaches on traditional societies. The title character is Tor Ba...more The Wandering Falcon is set in what is now considered to be a very troubled and indeed, very controversial area, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Afghanistan. Of of these areas, Waziristan, has been in the news for some time due to its fame as a Taliban refuge, but Ahmad's focus is on the numerous tribes who occupied this region prior to modern-day conflicts; he examines how they maintain their ways of life as modernity encroaches on traditional societies. The title character is Tor Baz, (Black Falcon) who was born near a military outpost, a "tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten, and broken hills where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet," to a couple of illicit lovers from the Siahpad tribe who had run away from their home. All goes well with this family of three until their pasts catch up with them and they are found by their kinsmen and dealt with in accordance to tribal custom. Tor is spared, but abandoned; he is later picked up by Baluch tribesmen, then handed off from person to person and eventually, he simply strikes out on his own.

Throughout the book, his travels take him throughout the various border areas, serving as the vehicle through which Ahmad brings his readers into the lives of the different tribes who inhabit this landscape: the Wazirs, Mahsuds, Brahui, the Kharot and the Afridi; there are also the Nasirs, the Dortanis and Baluchs. Along the way Ahmad describes how changes in the world outside of these regions have affected the tribespeople. In one story, for example, nomadic Kharot Powindas ("foot people") have brought their livestock to graze along their traditional wandering routes, but now the border is guarded by soldiers who will not let them pass without proper papers. But these documents cost money and require birth certificates, health documents and identity papers, neither of which the thousands of Kharot possess. One brave woman puts the Quran on her head, banking on the fact that she will be protected, and leads her animals forward only to be fired on by soldiers. As others make the same attempt, they and their animals are mowed down in what will become a massacre. In another, tribes are aligned either with the British or the Nazis during World War II; and in still another, the key guide leading climbers up the Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush area finds himself with no income and unable to provide for his family once the summit is conquered; his daughter is stolen and later sold into prostitution.

Ahmad writes simply, adding few embellishments to his prose, but it is the sense of place that stands out in this book. From the harsh, dry deserts with their blinding sandstorms to the peaks of the Hindu Kush, the landscape is eloquently and realistically described. Combining his writing with his expert knowledge of the area, Ahmad takes his readers on a journey through lands they might otherwise never see, revealing a longstanding way of life that has been disappearing for some time. The book is also filled with scenes that create vivid images in the reader's imagination; for example, in one story, a wife calls to her husband to come out and witness the beginning of spring:

"There was a full moon, and it hung half hidden behind the northern cliff. The moonlight was strong and dazzling to the eyes... A long distance away on the mountain crest, he could see small antlike figures silhouetted against its orb. There was a long chain of them moving slowly with loads on their backs. These were the ice cutters."

It is very obvious that Ahmad has a deep fondness for the people and the landscape of these areas. He is not critical of the people who inhabit this region; at the same time, he does not idealize them either. Through his eyes perhaps his readers will be able to envision a place, a time, and groups of people before all became synonymous with terror and war.

Many of the book's critics have complained that it is misrepresented as a novel, and I agree. It is really a set of short stories, and using Tor Baz as our eyes and ears in some cases does not imply that the book revolves around his character. The dustjacket blurb is a bit misleading in that respect. However, when all is said and done, whether or not it is a novel or a short-story collection just isn't that big of a deal, because it is such a good book no matter what you want to call it. Definitely recommended. (less)

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Mar 07, 2012 Jon Cox rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-serious-adult-stuff, history-politics, outdoors, philosophy-religion

It's possible that I am so ethnocentric that I don't appreciate the story-telling tradition and style of another culture. Either that, or this book was written terribly. To me it read like a realy choppy and uneven cliff-notes summary.

I have no problem with the general device of having the main character of the story appear as a supporting character in each of the stories. In fact, if it were done right, it could turn out very ingeniously interesting and end up revealing a lot about the main ch...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book takes place where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet. It is about tribal conflicts of tribes that most of us have never heard of in places very obscure as well. Some of the tribes and people include Pawindahs, Mahshuds, Bhittanis, Afridis, Para Chamkanis, Orakzis, and Sheraiais. The locations include Waziristan, Bannu, Tirah, Uppper and Lower Chitral, Tirich Mir and Rawalpindi. These are not only foreign sounding but the tribal ways and customs are far from familiar to...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

The Wandering Falcon is the debut novel from eighty-year old Jamil Ahmad. The book is actually more like nine loosely connected short stories than a novel. The title character, Tor Baz, appears in most every story – briefly in some and as the main focus in others. Tor Baz was born to an adulterous couple who are caught and killed when he is five years old. From that point on, he wanders from tribe to tribe, never identifying with one specific tribe. Because tribal culture is so important in this...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Barbara Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a difficult book to review, although I must say from the start that I truly enjoyed it. If you read it, I have a suggestion. Pretend that you are at a library or an outdoor event, in a group gathered around to listen to a great storyteller. There is tea for everyone and perhaps some dates, nuts, and other little snacks. Then the 80 year old Jamil Ahmad begins to tell strange and wonderful stories about the people of the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He gives some idea of the h...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Gregg Chadwick rated it 5 of 5 stars

In his first work of fiction, "The Wandering Falcon", Jamil Ahmad depicts a world caught between timeless paths of migration and geo-political modernity. Ahmad knits together a series of short stories that cover the life arc of one young man, Tor Baz - the wandering falcon of the title, as he journeys from infancy to manhood.

Inspired by his time as a civil service worker in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Ahmad writes of a world governed by clan and custom. During his time as a powerful emissary o...more In his first work of fiction, "The Wandering Falcon", Jamil Ahmad depicts a world caught between timeless paths of migration and geo-political modernity. Ahmad knits together a series of short stories that cover the life arc of one young man, Tor Baz - the wandering falcon of the title, as he journeys from infancy to manhood.

Inspired by his time as a civil service worker in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Ahmad writes of a world governed by clan and custom. During his time as a powerful emissary of the Pakistani government under the tribal region's frontier governing system, Jamil Ahmad simultaneously served as politician, police chief, judge, jury and executioner. Bits of this personal history are woven within the stories, including hints of Jamil's wife's German heritage. Environmentalist and activist Helga Ahmad was instrumental in encouraging her husband Jamil to move from halting first attempts at poetry to richly crafted stories of people, place and borders.

The bleak landscapes in the book evoke a world of nomadic treks where human contact is brief and often violent, and where far western desert winds blow clouds of sand so thick that breath is priceless. The environment is unforgiving as is the justice doled out by tribe and government.

Jamil Ahmad finished "The Wandering Falcon" in 1973-74, but the stories did not find a publisher until this year. Penguin Books' decision to at last publish Jamil's stories is timely. Ahmad believes that his stories evoke a vanishing world of tribes that the modern world must resonate and harmonize with: "Because frankly speaking, I still think that each one of us has a tribal gene inside, embedded inside. I really think that way."

Jamil Ahmad hopes that deeper understanding of the tribes that once roamed freely between the far borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran could help end the wars that stain their mountains and valleys with blood. Reading "The Wandering Falcon" can help begin a process of understanding between the timeless nomadic life and the fragmenting borders of our post-modern society.

Our contemporary world has much to learn from the rhythms of the nomadic trail. I highly recommend Jamil Ahmad's magnificent book "The Wandering Falcon".(less)

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Nov 27, 2011 Jeruen Dery rated it 4 of 5 stars

An edited version of this article was first published as Book Review: The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad on Blogcritics.org.

What happens when tradition clashes with modernity? What happens when one's nomadic life suddenly becomes hindered by modern concepts such as international borders and policy? This new novel by Jamil Ahmad, entitled The Wandering Falcon addresses these issues, using very wonderfully written prose.

As a short synopsis: this book tells the tale of Tor Baz -- the "black falcon...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Darryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Wandering Falcon is a moving collection of interconnected short stories set in the remote tribal areas that border Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, which all feature one character, Tor Baz, who began life as the child of two lovers who have fled from their village and spent his life as a wanderer throughout the region's villages, a man who belongs to no particular tribe but is able to gain the respect of those he encounters. Life in these areas is difficult, due to the harsh climate; the roug...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Lee Razer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-fiction

"World fiction" has an inherent advantage over fiction from right here in my own culture: in addition to the entertainment and literary qualities of the story there is the appeal of learning about entirely different ways of life someplace else in the world. Okay, maybe that doesn't do much for some people, but I'm not a Republican so it works for me.

The collection of stories that makes up The Wandering Falcon is brilliant for immersing the reader in a part of the world where the ways of life and...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pakistan

My goodness, I’ve only read two books from the Man Asian Literary Prize longlist and already I’d be hard-pressed to choose between them!

According to the bio at Fishpond, Jamil Ahmad is a former Civil Servant who worked in the frontier provinces of Pakistan and also in Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul before and during the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan. Now living in retirement in Islamabad with his wife, he has – at the age of nearly eighty – gained international recognition with this remarkable d...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-east-turkey, middle-east-march-september-2013

I was pleasantly surprised to have really enjoyed this book. It's a small book, but each story had quite a key impactful plot, which also gives you another layer of the zone the whole book is situated.

The Wandering Falcon is a chance to showcase the daily lives of nomads and communities around the borderlines between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It does follow the life of one character Tor Baz, but not as the main character. He comes in and out of each chapter, in some of them more strongly t...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Raghu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Two unique features made me want to read this book by Jamil Ahmad. The first one was the fact that the author had written the stories in this book in the early 1970s and had just filed them away for almost forty years before publishing it as his first novel at the ripe old age of eighty. The second was that this is a book that tells you stories about the nomadic and settled tribes of Waziristan, Baluchistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - something that very few, if any, have probably done before i...more Two unique features made me want to read this book by Jamil Ahmad. The first one was the fact that the author had written the stories in this book in the early 1970s and had just filed them away for almost forty years before publishing it as his first novel at the ripe old age of eighty. The second was that this is a book that tells you stories about the nomadic and settled tribes of Waziristan, Baluchistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - something that very few, if any, have probably done before in English. Being from India, I was particularly keen to learn about these tribes because all that we hear about them nowadays are horror stories in the international media. The author, though an ethnic Punjabi, writes about them without judgement and with love and affection. He is well qualified to write on the subject as he served in these border areas as a Pakistani Civil Service officer for many years.

The book, though billed as a novel, seems to me a collection of independent short stories about the various tribes. The only thread that links them in a fragile way is the character of young Tor Baz, belonging possibly to the Siahpad tribe. The stories are mostly about enforcing the harsh tribal laws, about following traditions which are alien to modern societies, about dealing with the complexities of migration across national boundaries by nomadic tribes without documents etc. The last three chapters chronicle stories about the lives of two women who run away from their homes due to ill-treatment by their husbands but eventually end up being 'sold' in the market to prospective brothel owners or their agents in the cities. It was heart-rending to read these three chapters as it is painful for me to realize that in our sub-continent such things have happened as recently as forty years ago and still happens in all our big cities even now. One of the stories deals with the Mehsud tribe kidnapping a government official from the city for ransom in order for the tribesmen to make some money. It is written about in such a matter-of-fact manner by the author without any ethical judgement. I thought this was brilliant. In the same way, he writes about the trafficking of destitute women by men and selling one's own children temporarily to another during times times of acute poverty, again without any ethical judgement. I think this is what makes the stories special.

Most of the tribes Jamil Ahmad writes about seem to be illiterate and place high value on honor and on their given word. However, there is also much cruelty in their lives, much physical hardship and survival and death. There are some wonderful lines in the book as follows:
While writing about the Mehsuds and the Wazirs, he says: ..."Nature has bred in both an unusual abundance of anger, enormous resilience, and a total refusal to accept their fate...". I feel that the American and NATO forces are finding the truth of this statement today.

I found the stories quite educational and exotic. Anyone interested in the lives of people in these frontier areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan would not be disappointed in reading this book. The language used by the author is simple and straightforward and fits in well with the subject matter.
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Nov 06, 2011 Mark Staniforth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jamil Ahmad's 'The Wandering Falcon' is set in the heart of the stateless stretch of mountains where the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran meet: an area mythologized by news bulletins as lawless, tribal Taliban hidey-holes, buzzing only with unmanned drones.
Ahmad gives a rare voice to this forbidden region's human collateral as he follows the wanderings of a boy named Tor Baz - the Black Falcon - through its many different, complex cultures and honour-bound societies.
Ahmad writes of a r...more Jamil Ahmad's 'The Wandering Falcon' is set in the heart of the stateless stretch of mountains where the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran meet: an area mythologized by news bulletins as lawless, tribal Taliban hidey-holes, buzzing only with unmanned drones.
Ahmad gives a rare voice to this forbidden region's human collateral as he follows the wanderings of a boy named Tor Baz - the Black Falcon - through its many different, complex cultures and honour-bound societies.
Ahmad writes of a region pre-Taliban, but its roots are plain to see in a land where 'imputation of immorality meant certain death', and whose relentless hardships breed a perverted if somewhat understandable sense of justice:

'Despite their differences, the two tribes [Mahsuds and Wazirs] share more than merely their common heritage of poverty and misery. Nature has bred in both an unusual abundance of anger, enormous resilience, and a total refusal to accept their fate. If nature provides them with food for only ten days in a year, they believe it their right to demand the rest of their sustenance from their fellow men who live oily, fat and comfortable lives in the plains. To both tribes, survival is the ultimate virtue. In neither community is any stigma attached to a hired assassin, a thief, a kidnapper or an informer.'

The region is changing. Governments are beginning to patch up their porous borders, threatening to irrevocably alter the lifestyles of the wandering tribes who have migrated between mountains and plains for centuries. The young are beginning to look less towards their elders and more to the distant cousins who have grown rich selling opium in the city.
Ahmad captures this creeping change through an extraordinarily successful narrative device, in which the wanderings of Tor Baz act as a conduit for the author to shine his light on each new tribe or clan in turn: often, that is where the role of Tor Baz ends, as the story loops away to engage others before we meet him again, chapters later, elsewhere. This clever conceit enables the author to stay true to the traditional storytelling techniques of the region, at the same time deftly weaving in elements of a more modern, character-driven tale.
Ahmad's book laid unpublished for thirty years before his wife convinced him to seek publication. Now 78, Ahmad, who served in the border regions as a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan and later as minister in the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, has been rewarded with a longlisting for the prestigious MAN Asian Literary Prize.
'The Wandering Falcon' is a deeply affecting book which provides a riveting insight into an area which the West is all too ready to write off as a vast outdoor training school for bandits and bombers. What Ahmad has, in fact, crafted out of this land of endless dust-storms and unforgiving mountain ranges is a beautiful testament to the triumph of the human spirit. (less)

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Sep 17, 2011 Signora rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have taken a number of classes on Afghanistan and Pakistan…it’s history, the people, the culture, the conflict. It continues to come down to a bottom line that these countries are tribal in nature and that unless you understand the tribal culture, you can never understand the country. Because we look at life “through our eyes” it is impossible for someone who is not “inside” the culture to see it in its entirety and to convey it authentically.

I was very happy to receive the ARC of the “The Wan...more I have taken a number of classes on Afghanistan and Pakistan…it’s history, the people, the culture, the conflict. It continues to come down to a bottom line that these countries are tribal in nature and that unless you understand the tribal culture, you can never understand the country. Because we look at life “through our eyes” it is impossible for someone who is not “inside” the culture to see it in its entirety and to convey it authentically.

I was very happy to receive the ARC of the “The Wandering Falcon” written by Jamil Ahmad, someone who was very “inside” the tribal culture. Ahmad was a Pakistani civil servant who worked for decades in the Northwest Tribal region. His first posting was in Baluchistan. In 1970, at the urging of his wife, he began to write stories based on his experiences. The result is the fictional account of “The Wandering Falcon,” which is a collection of stories that take place in the mountainous region along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The stories’ characters are members of the nomadic tribes that are in constant flow between the high mountainous areas and the plains, as they take their sheep and goats to grazing areas. They are loosely tied together by the character of Tor Baz, a young boy who was orphaned when his parents, an adulterous couple, were killed according to tribal law when he was 5 years old. He was adopted by Baluch rebels who were fighting the Pakistani government and over time becomes the wandering falcon.

The book is small and is an easy read…and I could not put it down. It is stark and it is brutal as it describes the struggles and life of the people, the interactions between characters and the resolving of life’s issues and conflicts according to tribal law. And yet, embedded in the brutality is a beauty and an empathy for the people that creates a sense of humanity in the telling. Tribal law is something that I cannot understand. I was struck with how black and white it is. There are no gray areas. There is a clear dividing line between right and wrong and there is no hesitation in acting according to the dictates of it.

Ahmed completed the book in 1973 but no one was willing to publish it until 2008 when two young Pakistani women, a Lahore-based bookseller, Aysha Raja, and a Karachi-based columnist and editor, Faiza Sultan Khan, called on Pakistani authors to submit stories for a competition. Ahmad's younger brother insisted that he must show them his work. After reworking the 35-year-old manuscript, Ahmad sent it to Khan, who championed it, and showed it to an editor at Penguin. (source: Basharat Peer, The Guardian).

I am glad that I read the book and while I will never understand how the characters can live as they do and choose as they do, I have a greater appreciation for their life and their struggle. It has also clarified my thoughts and opinions about the Western involvement in this area. I highly recommend the book to anyone who appreciates the beautiful use of words to describe an unknown entity, which Jamil Ahmad did…beautifully!
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Mar 11, 2013 Carolanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for book covers. This book drew me in because of the simple and beautiful cover and the size. The book is smaller than most paperbacks.
One tip: it may be better to read this book as a collection of short stories rather than a novel.

The chapters each depict different people in different situations in three bordering countries. There is a main character, but he weaves in and out of the stories and isn't necessarily the protagonist, although i think he is the wandering falcon.
I lea...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars

As I read this book I realized I knew less than nothing about the tribal people of Afghanistan; nothing about the Afghan people who are not called "tribal." I only knew a little about the geography, and that only because I'm familiar with the desert of the American southwest. I have a small Baluch prayer rug; Jamil Ahmad puts me in he story of the people who ade it. Almost, I am repelled by the seeming cruelty, but there is deeper meaning here. Ahmad made it clear to me what it is to live in thi...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received a copy thanks to Goodreads' First Reads. The Wandering Falcon is a series of short stories about the tribal lands of Pakistan and Afghanistan. I'm not normally a huge fan of short stories because as a general rule I like something that I can sink my teeth into, characters that have depth and so on and so forth. But the Wandering Falcon was different. The stories read almost more like fables, but fables tied together by a central character. As the book progressed I began to look for th...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This story has a fascinating setting - the mountainous and sparsely populated region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The main central character is Tor Baz, who has been on the move throughout the region since before his birth. However, he is only a cursory character in the book, showing up here and there as other character's stories are woven through the book. I never got a sense of who he was or even the full story of the chronology of his life.

I found the book to be choppy and confusing. It...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Cameling rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The desert hills through which the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran cross are home to many nomadic tribes, each just wanting to roam the hills with their camels and sheep, maintaining the lifestyle of their ancestors.

A boy is orphaned when his parents are murdered in front of him by the woman's tribe. Left to die, the boy is found by another nomadic tribe and adopted by them, but later finds himself abandoned yet again when the men he travels with are tricked into going to a government...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Part novel and part collection of short stories, set on the Afghan-Pakistan border, this book tells the story of the Wandering Falcon, a young man who travels among the tribes and nomads of the area. It starts with his birth to a couple who have run away from their respective homes, only to be hunted down and eventually killed. He appears in each of the stories, although generally as a minor character in each one. The book is plotted more like a collection of short stories than like a novel, and...more

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Oct 12, 2011 Lakis Fourouklas rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those novels that could be read as a fairytale. Actually it contains all the elements of a good old fairytale, as it talks about habits, customs and traditions in the forever mysterious east, and tries to explain to the ever ignorant people of the west some of the things that however how hard they try they do not seem able to comprehend.
The main character in this story is a man that goes by the name of Tor Baz; a love child. Tor Baz was born at a military outpost in the middle of...more This is one of those novels that could be read as a fairytale. Actually it contains all the elements of a good old fairytale, as it talks about habits, customs and traditions in the forever mysterious east, and tries to explain to the ever ignorant people of the west some of the things that however how hard they try they do not seem able to comprehend.
The main character in this story is a man that goes by the name of Tor Baz; a love child. Tor Baz was born at a military outpost in the middle of the desert, and grew up among the soldiers and his constantly worried parents, who were afraid that their sin would catch up with them. What sin was that? Well, they were not actually married, and his mother was the wife of his father’s boss. As it turns out they were right to be afraid, as one day they would be discovered by the people they have wronged and thus lose their lives. Tor was spared his life but he was left behind all alone in an oasis in the desert, helplessly hoping to live to see another day. And that’s exactly where an army officer found him and decided to save his life. So he had the six year old boy follow him to a far away town, where the kid was destined to discover an exciting new world; a world of written and oral knowledge, of modern and ancient wisdom. His teacher was an idiosyncratic mullah called Barrerai, a man who was bound to play an important role in the future history of the region. While times were changing and new realities were starting to emerge, and as “one set of values, one way of life had to die,” he had to do the best he possibly could to protect his people from their worst instincts, to stand in the way of the bad things to come out of their ignorance and sometimes plain stupidity.
Tor Baz and Barrerai, using as their only weapons their knowledge and their cunning, would in the future pave different courses around their remote world, but their paths would meet time and again, either in the dens of memory or in some godforsaken places. Following their adventures we get to visit lands unknown to us and learn about some values and ways of life completely different from the ones we know. The aphorisms we read every now and then may sound crude to our ears; “Conscience is like a poor relation living in a rich man’s house”; but probably they speak tons of truth about the people in the region. As the two protagonists wander again and again over the invisible at the beginning but more tangible as time went by borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan, they get to meet, and introduce us to, a lot of people, and they see and hear and learn too much; they reach great heights of wisdom; wisdom which they share with the reader.
This is a novel in fragments. However the author does not seem that interested in experimenting with the writing; he simply wants to tell his story; a story that evolves through the shards of different lives; a story about a world waist deep into the still waters of tradition and incapable of embracing change and adapting to new realities. But this is also a story about a land where women have no voice and no rights, and where the men’s ethics can at the very best be described as questionable, since they consider abductions and the trafficking of women as normal; no matter that the memory of one the secondary characters was “only a sea of women’s faces, and his small body shook with tension every time he saw yet another face to be sold.”
The Wandering Falcon is a novel that really has a lot to tell to the readers in the west. At times it becomes dark but that only adds to the reading pleasure. Its prose is beautiful and nostalgic in a way that I cannon really explain, since the story carries a lot of echoes of today. This is a book finely crafted and worthy of the attention of any reader who’s interested in the mysteries of the east.
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Sep 20, 2011 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: firstreads, literary, memoir

Although this book is fiction, you sense, reading it, that so much is based on the author's memories and his life that I also categorized it as memoir.

The Wandering Falcon is an astonishing book, with an astonishing history. It's written in straightforward prose: here is what happened. And yet the stories are so exotic and at the same time somehow familiar that the book gathers an air of mystery and truth about itself.

Its author, Jamil Ahmad, is an 80-year-old man, who wrote it decades ago. Re...more Although this book is fiction, you sense, reading it, that so much is based on the author's memories and his life that I also categorized it as memoir.

The Wandering Falcon is an astonishing book, with an astonishing history. It's written in straightforward prose: here is what happened. And yet the stories are so exotic and at the same time somehow familiar that the book gathers an air of mystery and truth about itself.

Its author, Jamil Ahmad, is an 80-year-old man, who wrote it decades ago. Rebuffed by publishers, he put it away in a drawer. At last a relative asked him did he still have the manuscript, and perhaps the publishers would be more interested now, after 9/11.

It makes you wonder how many other masterpieces are in drawers.

The Wandering Falcon is made up of nine interlocking stories, which all include the book's title character. He's born in the first story, and perhaps marries, perhaps, in the last. In between he's a guide, saved by rebels, adopted by the family of a murdered boy, and so on - his life is a wheel of fortune of fate. It's a fate that would have turned out less happily had he been a girl, for the stories are set in the triangle of tribal lands across Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.

The cultures are not appealing, and yet Ahmad tells the stories in ways that show how once these cultures might have been more appealing; certainly they included more kindness and were more sustainable.

His writing also shows how people find happiness despite hunger, loneliness, cold, and injustice; and find beauty in any wild landscape. Although I read an uncorrected proof, coming through a Goodreads giveaway, the language is so lovely it seems wrong not to at least give just a taste: "[Their land] offered them a thousand shades of gray and brown, with which it tinted its hills, its sands, and its earth. There were subtle changes of color in the blackness of the nights and the brightness of the days, and the vigorous colors of the tiny desert flowers hidden in the dusty bushes, and of the gliding snakes and scurrying lizards as they buried themselves in the sand. To the men, beauty and color were rampant around them..."

The Wandering Falcon shows that you don't need to read science fiction in order to slip into existence on what might as well be another planet.(less)

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Mar 25, 2013 Roger rated it 5 of 5 stars

The best book I read last year. The chapters/stories move along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border and through the life story of the extraordinary main character, who adapts to the changing times and varied peoples of the regions. Along the way we meet eccentric mullahs, professional kidnappers, runaway brides, and all manner of vivid event. Jamil Ahmad, was an administrator and diplomat before he settled in retirement to write this mesmerizing book, a wonder of compressed style. Riveting and enter...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Salma Omar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely riveting. Simple, clear and heart felt writing. The author takes us to the heart of the tribal culture. It is a world standing at the cusp of change yet finds its own codes of life, of honor, duty, trust. The fact that the central character is fleeting fits in the richness of the tribal world painted through these stories. I feel that the approach to story telling is also beyond the confines of a formula short story-type novel. The author uses individual points in people's lives to pa...more

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