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City of Spies
In this intimate coming-of-age story set in the late 1970s, a young girl struggles to make sense of the chaos around her during Pakistan's political upheaval, where the military revolts, the embassy burns, and a terrible secret tears her world apart.
Eleven-year-old Aliya Shah lives a double life in Islamabad, Pakistan - at home with her Pakistani father and Dutch mother, and at the American School, where Aliya tries to downplay that she is a "half-and-half." But when a hit-and-run driver kills the son of the family's servant, Sadiq, who is also Aliya's dear friend, her world is turned upside down. After she discovers the truth behind the tragedy - a terrible secret that burdens her heart - her conflicted loyalties are tested as never before.
Based on the author's own experiences growing up in Islamabad, City of Spies offers a poignant and dramatic portrait of a tumultuous time, as seen through the eyes of a brave and compassionate young heroine struggling to find her place in the gray area between loyalty and complicity, family and country.
Eleven-year-old Aliya Shah lives a double life in Islamabad, Pakistan - at home with her Pakistani father and Dutch mother, and at the American School, where Aliya tries to downplay that she is a "half-and-half." But when a hit-and-run driver kills the son of the family's servant, Sadiq, who is also Aliya's dear friend, her world is turned upside down. After she discovers the truth behind the tragedy - a terrible secret that burdens her heart - her conflicted loyalties are tested as never before.
Based on the author's own experiences growing up in Islamabad, City of Spies offers a poignant and dramatic portrait of a tumultuous time, as seen through the eyes of a brave and compassionate young heroine struggling to find her place in the gray area between loyalty and complicity, family and country.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2015
189 people are currently reading
1156 people want to read
About the author
Sorayya Khan
5 books129 followersSorayya Khan was born in Vienna, Austria, grew up in Islamabad, Pakistan, and received her BA and MA in the US. She didn’t know she wanted to be a writer until she began writing fiction and couldn’t stop.
Sorayya is the author of We Take Our Cities with Us: A Memoir (2022), which she wrote after her mother’s death, and three novels, Noor (2004), Five Queen’s Road (2009), and City of Spies (2015), which won Best International Fiction Award at the Sharjah Book Fair (2016).
Sorayya’s writing has appeared in Guernica, Longreads, The Kenyon Review, North American Review, The Malahat Review, Journal of Narrative Politics, and several other magazines and anthologies. She is the winner of a Malahat Review Novella Prize for "In the Shadows of the Margalla Hills," an early imagining of a central event in City of Spies. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award which took her to Bangladesh and Pakistan in order to research Noor --and changed her understanding of humanity and war. Some years ago, before she realized she would write non-fiction, she received a grant from a local arts foundation that sent her to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where she interviewed tsunami survivors and learned more about love and resilience than she could have imagined. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband and two children, and is happy to be again at work in a fictional universe.
Sorayya is the author of We Take Our Cities with Us: A Memoir (2022), which she wrote after her mother’s death, and three novels, Noor (2004), Five Queen’s Road (2009), and City of Spies (2015), which won Best International Fiction Award at the Sharjah Book Fair (2016).
Sorayya’s writing has appeared in Guernica, Longreads, The Kenyon Review, North American Review, The Malahat Review, Journal of Narrative Politics, and several other magazines and anthologies. She is the winner of a Malahat Review Novella Prize for "In the Shadows of the Margalla Hills," an early imagining of a central event in City of Spies. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award which took her to Bangladesh and Pakistan in order to research Noor --and changed her understanding of humanity and war. Some years ago, before she realized she would write non-fiction, she received a grant from a local arts foundation that sent her to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where she interviewed tsunami survivors and learned more about love and resilience than she could have imagined. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband and two children, and is happy to be again at work in a fictional universe.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
December 7, 2017
Fascinating, pensive, and well written.
City of Spies is an intriguing read that gives you an inside look into what life in Islamabad was like for a young girl of mixed race (Pakistani/Dutch) during the 1970s and the American influence in that part of the world at that time.
Thank you to Thomas Allen & Son and Goodreads Giveaways for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 1, 2021
Really good story based on true events that happened to the author when she was a young girl and lived in Islamabad with her family in the 1970's. I loved the young girl's voice in this story. She was so smart and related to everyone in the her family and the servants and tried to understand all the political stuff that was happening. A major incident that involved one of the servants were the basis for a lot of the story.
April 10, 2023
For years now, I’ve been reading and writing reviews, the first for longer than the latter. And one thing I noticed in every reviewer’s repertoire was that at one point or another, there would be something along the lines of ‘I took more notes on this story but my review got deleted/notes got wiped/hard drive crashed’.
Well, guess it’s my turn to be burned now.
What’s doubly frustrating about this whole business is that I had so much to say about this book. Some stories tend to be a little one-dimensional and the sum of what I have to say about them is ‘This was absolute crap’. But that wasn’t the case here. There was tons of material worth analyzing. My notes went on and on and on, and even while I was reading I knew I was going overboard, knew I would end up with a super long review, but turns out we’re going to be stuck with a super short one.
Overall, my final impression is that it’s a good read, the equivalent of a weaker Kamila Shamsie. Shamsie does to perfection what the author has tried to achieve here: the idea of large-scale politics affecting our individual lives. While Shamsie’s best work tackles things at a global level, this book’s vibe felt more similar to her more localized narratives such as Salt and Saffron, another book which got a very similar rating from my end. Mostly that’s because both books had that similar thread of interesting but not enough. Just good enough to be better than the average, but not overwhelming great, even though the beginning was strong, with a sentence that hooked me completely.
My parents tell me that we are defined by the wars we have lived, regardless of whether we can name them. They did not have the luxury of not knowing their wars.
The story revolves our teenaged narrator, a young girl living in Pakistan during the 1970’s, during the Cold War and Bhutto and Zia and one of Pakistan’s most tumultuous historical moments (which isn’t saying much considering how tumultuous everything that comes before and after this decade continues to be). Politics has always been an important part of a lot of Pakistani books, mainly for 2 reasons. A, because so much of our lives are ruled by it, but also B, because the kind of genres that sometimes ignore politics such as young adult, horror, romance, etc. aren’t really as pervasive in Pakistan as contemporary fiction, which relies pretty heavily on the holy trinity of religion, politics, and terrorism to form its plot. This book takes on even more, tackling nationality, language, and identity within what is essentially a very simple plot.
The beginning of this story is simple if you have an eye for color, a gift for geography, and a mind for fractions. My father, Javid, is brown and Pakistani; my mother, Irene, is white and Dutch; and my siblings and I are half-and-halfs.
A huge part of the story is about belonging: belonging to a country, and what the connotations of that belonging are. Because our narrator is what she herself calls a ‘half-and-half’, there is an overwhelming sense of discomfort that she attests to while living in Pakistan but studying in an American school. Personally, I didn’t really care for the first person perceptive, or maybe it was just because it had been so long since I had read a really good narrative written in such a manner, but I felt uncomfortable through a significant portion of the story. Sometimes that was also because I didn’t believe such a young narrator could harbor the kind of nuanced thoughts that usually adults view the world through. I don’t mean to be disparaging of younger protagonists and usually argue for intricacy in the inner lives of teenagers, but there’s a difference between the thought process of an adult and a child that the author seemed unable to balance quite properly in a few scenes. Still, overall the book presented an admirable level of complexity in its characters and plot, enough to paint the world grey instead of its usual black and white.
As a rule, truth is as wide and all-encompassing as you let it be, and there is always more of it.
Anything else I have to say about this book is going to be vague and unreferenced, because of the deleted notes fiasco mentioned earlier. I do remember that there were lots and lots of local references, in a manner that particularly warmed my very desi heart. Growing up, I read a copious amount of western literature, which mentioned in numerous ways western books, tv shows, songs, and on and on. So it was great to see how very particular to the region this book was: all the street names, shops, clothing brands, even very tiny stuff like the butter they used or the drinks they drank were things I knew and recognized, which made me particularly happy, which made me feel very seen.
There was also a wealth of material on languages which I am particularly miffed about losing, because the book addresses the complexities of being bilingual without being didactic, which I am a particular fan of. Honestly, I feel like this book lends itself really well to the possibility of being a thesis subject, purely because there’s so much to discuss here. Even beyond languages, there are conversations about what separates the rich from the poor, or what it means to be of a particular skin colour. Patriotism is also an oft-mentioned conversation topic, with characters frequently questioning what it means to love a country, even in the face of all its multiple flaws.
My home is a barrage of headlines. You see, my country is at war. My cities are burning. My capital is a police checkpoint where journalists disappear.
I’m not sure if the author meant for it to be read as such but featuring Islamabad as the City of Spies is a clever twist on Karachi’s oft-used title of City of Lights. This is one of the few points I managed to remember from the original notes I took, none of which exist anymore, and so we are going to have to stop here. Overall, I recommend this book as a one time read, good for a lazy afternoon and better still if a friend has read it so you can discuss the complexities together. 3 stars overall.
He explained that when your country called on you, it was your duty to run right back to it with arms outstretched and fall on your knees, ready to deliver whatever it needed.
***
I review Pakistani Fiction, and talk about Pakistani fiction, and want to talk to people who like to talk about fiction (Pakistani and otherwise, take your pick.) To read more reviews or just contact me so you can talk about books, check out my Blog or follow me on Twitter!
Well, guess it’s my turn to be burned now.
What’s doubly frustrating about this whole business is that I had so much to say about this book. Some stories tend to be a little one-dimensional and the sum of what I have to say about them is ‘This was absolute crap’. But that wasn’t the case here. There was tons of material worth analyzing. My notes went on and on and on, and even while I was reading I knew I was going overboard, knew I would end up with a super long review, but turns out we’re going to be stuck with a super short one.
Overall, my final impression is that it’s a good read, the equivalent of a weaker Kamila Shamsie. Shamsie does to perfection what the author has tried to achieve here: the idea of large-scale politics affecting our individual lives. While Shamsie’s best work tackles things at a global level, this book’s vibe felt more similar to her more localized narratives such as Salt and Saffron, another book which got a very similar rating from my end. Mostly that’s because both books had that similar thread of interesting but not enough. Just good enough to be better than the average, but not overwhelming great, even though the beginning was strong, with a sentence that hooked me completely.
My parents tell me that we are defined by the wars we have lived, regardless of whether we can name them. They did not have the luxury of not knowing their wars.
The story revolves our teenaged narrator, a young girl living in Pakistan during the 1970’s, during the Cold War and Bhutto and Zia and one of Pakistan’s most tumultuous historical moments (which isn’t saying much considering how tumultuous everything that comes before and after this decade continues to be). Politics has always been an important part of a lot of Pakistani books, mainly for 2 reasons. A, because so much of our lives are ruled by it, but also B, because the kind of genres that sometimes ignore politics such as young adult, horror, romance, etc. aren’t really as pervasive in Pakistan as contemporary fiction, which relies pretty heavily on the holy trinity of religion, politics, and terrorism to form its plot. This book takes on even more, tackling nationality, language, and identity within what is essentially a very simple plot.
The beginning of this story is simple if you have an eye for color, a gift for geography, and a mind for fractions. My father, Javid, is brown and Pakistani; my mother, Irene, is white and Dutch; and my siblings and I are half-and-halfs.
A huge part of the story is about belonging: belonging to a country, and what the connotations of that belonging are. Because our narrator is what she herself calls a ‘half-and-half’, there is an overwhelming sense of discomfort that she attests to while living in Pakistan but studying in an American school. Personally, I didn’t really care for the first person perceptive, or maybe it was just because it had been so long since I had read a really good narrative written in such a manner, but I felt uncomfortable through a significant portion of the story. Sometimes that was also because I didn’t believe such a young narrator could harbor the kind of nuanced thoughts that usually adults view the world through. I don’t mean to be disparaging of younger protagonists and usually argue for intricacy in the inner lives of teenagers, but there’s a difference between the thought process of an adult and a child that the author seemed unable to balance quite properly in a few scenes. Still, overall the book presented an admirable level of complexity in its characters and plot, enough to paint the world grey instead of its usual black and white.
As a rule, truth is as wide and all-encompassing as you let it be, and there is always more of it.
Anything else I have to say about this book is going to be vague and unreferenced, because of the deleted notes fiasco mentioned earlier. I do remember that there were lots and lots of local references, in a manner that particularly warmed my very desi heart. Growing up, I read a copious amount of western literature, which mentioned in numerous ways western books, tv shows, songs, and on and on. So it was great to see how very particular to the region this book was: all the street names, shops, clothing brands, even very tiny stuff like the butter they used or the drinks they drank were things I knew and recognized, which made me particularly happy, which made me feel very seen.
There was also a wealth of material on languages which I am particularly miffed about losing, because the book addresses the complexities of being bilingual without being didactic, which I am a particular fan of. Honestly, I feel like this book lends itself really well to the possibility of being a thesis subject, purely because there’s so much to discuss here. Even beyond languages, there are conversations about what separates the rich from the poor, or what it means to be of a particular skin colour. Patriotism is also an oft-mentioned conversation topic, with characters frequently questioning what it means to love a country, even in the face of all its multiple flaws.
My home is a barrage of headlines. You see, my country is at war. My cities are burning. My capital is a police checkpoint where journalists disappear.
I’m not sure if the author meant for it to be read as such but featuring Islamabad as the City of Spies is a clever twist on Karachi’s oft-used title of City of Lights. This is one of the few points I managed to remember from the original notes I took, none of which exist anymore, and so we are going to have to stop here. Overall, I recommend this book as a one time read, good for a lazy afternoon and better still if a friend has read it so you can discuss the complexities together. 3 stars overall.
He explained that when your country called on you, it was your duty to run right back to it with arms outstretched and fall on your knees, ready to deliver whatever it needed.
***
I review Pakistani Fiction, and talk about Pakistani fiction, and want to talk to people who like to talk about fiction (Pakistani and otherwise, take your pick.) To read more reviews or just contact me so you can talk about books, check out my Blog or follow me on Twitter!
September 17, 2017
CITY OF SPIES is a critically important and fascinating read in our time of political strife and international crisis.
Thank you to Little A for providing me with an advance review copy of this title - all opinions are my own.
Set in the late 1970's in Islamabad, Pakistan, this novel is narrated by a pre-teen girl as she experiences politically and historically monumental events including the Iran Hostage Crisis and the burning of the US Embassy in Islamabad. While these events are occurring, Aliya is also grappling with her own biracial and cultural identity and a tragic accident involving the son of her Pakistani servant. As the child of a father who holds an important place in the government, Aliya attends the American School and is caught in a world between that of her American classmates and Pakistani relatives and neighbors.
As I read this book right after reading HUM IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE WORDS by Bianca Marais, I really can't help comparing the two and recommending that if you liked HUM (set in South Africa during the uprising to end apartheid), you should definitely pick up CITY OF SPIES. The parallels are obvious - narrated by young girl, racial and cultural identity grappled with, political instability, the role of the local population as servants/employees.
Khan's narrative is incredibly compelling and while it is not a fast read and requires close attention, the uniqueness and necessity of the topic matter put this book into my Best of 2017 category.
LIBRARIAN NOTES: While reading, I definitely was trying to place CITY OF SPIES into a "age" recommendation - it is an adult novel, but the content is such that it can definitely be placed into high school libraries. I would have recommended that it be included in the Adult Books for Teens review section of School Library Journal. Titlewave categorizes the title as Adult and Dewey as 813, which I would disagree with. I would place this in my fiction collection.
GOODREADS NOTE: The original edition of this book published by Aleph Book Company of New Delhi in 2015 is listed as a separate title on Goodreads - there are copious reviews there of the original publication. This listing is for the US publication by Little A, a division of Amazon Publishing.
Thank you to Little A for providing me with an advance review copy of this title - all opinions are my own.
Set in the late 1970's in Islamabad, Pakistan, this novel is narrated by a pre-teen girl as she experiences politically and historically monumental events including the Iran Hostage Crisis and the burning of the US Embassy in Islamabad. While these events are occurring, Aliya is also grappling with her own biracial and cultural identity and a tragic accident involving the son of her Pakistani servant. As the child of a father who holds an important place in the government, Aliya attends the American School and is caught in a world between that of her American classmates and Pakistani relatives and neighbors.
As I read this book right after reading HUM IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE WORDS by Bianca Marais, I really can't help comparing the two and recommending that if you liked HUM (set in South Africa during the uprising to end apartheid), you should definitely pick up CITY OF SPIES. The parallels are obvious - narrated by young girl, racial and cultural identity grappled with, political instability, the role of the local population as servants/employees.
Khan's narrative is incredibly compelling and while it is not a fast read and requires close attention, the uniqueness and necessity of the topic matter put this book into my Best of 2017 category.
LIBRARIAN NOTES: While reading, I definitely was trying to place CITY OF SPIES into a "age" recommendation - it is an adult novel, but the content is such that it can definitely be placed into high school libraries. I would have recommended that it be included in the Adult Books for Teens review section of School Library Journal. Titlewave categorizes the title as Adult and Dewey as 813, which I would disagree with. I would place this in my fiction collection.
GOODREADS NOTE: The original edition of this book published by Aleph Book Company of New Delhi in 2015 is listed as a separate title on Goodreads - there are copious reviews there of the original publication. This listing is for the US publication by Little A, a division of Amazon Publishing.
September 26, 2017
This is a beautiful, complex, revelatory book about a girl's experience of being half-Pakistani and half-Dutch in the American School of Islamabad from 1977 until the Iranian hostage crisis and the burning of the American Embassy in 1979. Finally, all these years after September 11, we have a chance to go back in time and see the place that has become so familiar as a name in headlines and yet so difficult to know: Islamabad.
"The beginning of this story is simple if you have an eye for colour, a gift for geography and a mind for fractions. My father, Javid, is brown and Pakistani, my mother, Irene, is white and Dutch, and my siblings and I are half-and-halfs. . . . Lucky for us, the government of Pakistan had just permitted the American school to build a large campus forty-five minutes outside the city. In return, the institution was required to admit a handful of Pakistanis on full scholarships because, of course, no Pakistani, except maybe the prime minister, could afford to pay the thousands of dollars as tuition fees. That's how we ended up in the American school, spending forty-five minutes every morning riding yellow school buses to the red-brick buildings on the outskirts of Islamabad."
To go inside that school, to ride in its yellow buses to places where Pakistanis and Americans live side by side but not together, to stand at the top of the high dive of the pool of the Islamabad Club, to see and smell and taste the differences between the smallest and yet absolutely definitive things, from Junior Mints to gulab jamuns and Nurpur butter, is to enter a fully-formed, richly textured, heartbreakingly imperfect world and see the faint but unmistakable beginnings of a conflict that has grown to engulf us all.
"The beginning of this story is simple if you have an eye for colour, a gift for geography and a mind for fractions. My father, Javid, is brown and Pakistani, my mother, Irene, is white and Dutch, and my siblings and I are half-and-halfs. . . . Lucky for us, the government of Pakistan had just permitted the American school to build a large campus forty-five minutes outside the city. In return, the institution was required to admit a handful of Pakistanis on full scholarships because, of course, no Pakistani, except maybe the prime minister, could afford to pay the thousands of dollars as tuition fees. That's how we ended up in the American school, spending forty-five minutes every morning riding yellow school buses to the red-brick buildings on the outskirts of Islamabad."
To go inside that school, to ride in its yellow buses to places where Pakistanis and Americans live side by side but not together, to stand at the top of the high dive of the pool of the Islamabad Club, to see and smell and taste the differences between the smallest and yet absolutely definitive things, from Junior Mints to gulab jamuns and Nurpur butter, is to enter a fully-formed, richly textured, heartbreakingly imperfect world and see the faint but unmistakable beginnings of a conflict that has grown to engulf us all.
June 1, 2015
*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) recieved a copy of City of Spies by Sorayya Khan from Rupa Publications in exchange for an honest review. We thank the publishing house for the book!
I honestly have no idea how I'm going to put down this review, and more importantly, I have no idea what I'm going to put down in this review. All I know is that I'm glad I kept my apprehension, boredom and reluctance aside and decided to ask for a copy of City of Spies, which turned to be exactly the kind of book that I like to read. A book that is brutal, fresh, true and raw. Even though it took me days to start the book and even more days to keep going with it, once I was in it, I was in it. There was no looking back and there was no putting the book down.
City of Spies is the story of one brave, courageous and smart girl whose father is Pakistani and mother is Dutch. Having stayed in Vienna for so long, Aliya and her family consisting of her parents and her older brother and sister, is forced to go to Pakistan for an electricity and water supply project that her father is to guide in his country. All the characters in this book are very well developed and excellently portrayed. Each one stands out and manages to shine even in the presence of others. But the one person who, I feel, is the star of the book, is the servant of the family, Hanif. Now why is that? That's for the reader to find out.
Aliya was portrayed as a normal girl who finds herself facing an identity crisis. Although she wants to adapt to the lifestyle of her fellow American or Western classmates, she still appreciates and even prefers her Pakistani specialities and everything else that makes the country incredible in her own right. She goes on to become a journalist and the entire book goes from her point of view in first person where she recounts her time spent in Pakistan as a school going girl between the arrival of the General to the burning of the American Embassy.
What made City of Spies such an epic read for me was the writing. Author Sorayya Khan has written a book wherein words flow like it's in their nature to just blend and form a prose that's so much like poetry. The writing was crisp, meticulous, spot-on and simply jaw-dropping. I adored every chapter, paragraph, line and word. I was amazed and absolutely mind-blown. The author has written a great book that recounts a lovely story, and that is enough to satisfy me. I don't see any reason why this book doesn't deserve to be read.
I honestly have no idea how I'm going to put down this review, and more importantly, I have no idea what I'm going to put down in this review. All I know is that I'm glad I kept my apprehension, boredom and reluctance aside and decided to ask for a copy of City of Spies, which turned to be exactly the kind of book that I like to read. A book that is brutal, fresh, true and raw. Even though it took me days to start the book and even more days to keep going with it, once I was in it, I was in it. There was no looking back and there was no putting the book down.
City of Spies is the story of one brave, courageous and smart girl whose father is Pakistani and mother is Dutch. Having stayed in Vienna for so long, Aliya and her family consisting of her parents and her older brother and sister, is forced to go to Pakistan for an electricity and water supply project that her father is to guide in his country. All the characters in this book are very well developed and excellently portrayed. Each one stands out and manages to shine even in the presence of others. But the one person who, I feel, is the star of the book, is the servant of the family, Hanif. Now why is that? That's for the reader to find out.
Aliya was portrayed as a normal girl who finds herself facing an identity crisis. Although she wants to adapt to the lifestyle of her fellow American or Western classmates, she still appreciates and even prefers her Pakistani specialities and everything else that makes the country incredible in her own right. She goes on to become a journalist and the entire book goes from her point of view in first person where she recounts her time spent in Pakistan as a school going girl between the arrival of the General to the burning of the American Embassy.
What made City of Spies such an epic read for me was the writing. Author Sorayya Khan has written a book wherein words flow like it's in their nature to just blend and form a prose that's so much like poetry. The writing was crisp, meticulous, spot-on and simply jaw-dropping. I adored every chapter, paragraph, line and word. I was amazed and absolutely mind-blown. The author has written a great book that recounts a lovely story, and that is enough to satisfy me. I don't see any reason why this book doesn't deserve to be read.
December 2, 2017
City of Spies was a brilliant read. Sorayya Khan took me back to my childhood and adolescence in Pakistan so seamlessly. She did what is so difficult i.e. paint a microcosm that sheds light on the macro climate through characters that live through seismic shifts of global events. The reader views events through very personal lenses of real peoples lives. I have rarely read a coming of age story that shows the schisms of home life and life outside of the family better. It illustrates the compromises especially kids who move and live global lives have to make as they negotiate their way in the world in an effort to construct identities that neither parent had to consciously chose in that way. For the first time I read about the way, kids like us, so often have to be observers of communities that are not ours for a very long time before we buy in and commit. Well done my friend Sorayya Khan, what a tour de force!!
December 1, 2017
Aliya, the story teller in the City of Spies, usually asks the right questions. Partly because she is often on the outside of whatever it is that's going on because she is caught betwixt and between. As a young person with a questioning mind she wonders about what is really going on - in the rapidly changing political landscape of a new Pakistan, at her home, at the American International school she travels to every day. She is from a mixed background with parents that have lived a worldly life with the freedom of movement and wealth that many families could only imagine. She is accustomed to having servants and though she is perhaps the most understanding person in her family when it comes to relating to the help she never can shake her suspicions or the expectation that they work for her. That said her intimate familial and community bond to the people in her house and Pakistan is so deep that it seems to surprise her sometimes. Her sincere fondness for her American best friend and her family complicates Aliya's sense of identity and community in unexpected ways.
This book and its main character are tender and adventurous. Aliyah's ongoing attempts to figure out what is going on are inspiring. Would that we all have an ongoing drive to understand more and better like she does. It is impossible to understand our world without digging into the past and the turbulent geo-political landscape of the late 1970's is hard to unpack. Sorayya Khan's fascinating and devastating novel takes us on this historical trip to Islamabad and the young yet inquisitive and thoughtful soul she created is an excellent companion.
This book and its main character are tender and adventurous. Aliyah's ongoing attempts to figure out what is going on are inspiring. Would that we all have an ongoing drive to understand more and better like she does. It is impossible to understand our world without digging into the past and the turbulent geo-political landscape of the late 1970's is hard to unpack. Sorayya Khan's fascinating and devastating novel takes us on this historical trip to Islamabad and the young yet inquisitive and thoughtful soul she created is an excellent companion.
January 17, 2018
Another volume of lovely prose from this author. After a slow start, I was drawn into Pakistan of the 70s, as seen by a young girl.
I was drawn back into my memories of being a tween at an American school in a foreign land (Mexico, in my case). I recognized the diplomatic families, often populated with spies, who got all their food and household supplies shipped from the States. Also the corporate kids (GM) who had drivers at their disposal at all times. We also had tense times at the school when protests were engulfing the US Embassy. It was enlightening to see the parallels.
Highly recommended!
I was drawn back into my memories of being a tween at an American school in a foreign land (Mexico, in my case). I recognized the diplomatic families, often populated with spies, who got all their food and household supplies shipped from the States. Also the corporate kids (GM) who had drivers at their disposal at all times. We also had tense times at the school when protests were engulfing the US Embassy. It was enlightening to see the parallels.
Highly recommended!
November 9, 2017
Two Stars - It was okay.
I won a free copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.
I was interested in this book mostly for the subject matter. I don't know much if anything about Pakistan in the late 1970s. I'm always interested in learning about new places and times and the history. So, I was excited to receive this book.
I was disappointed with the narration. A LOT of telling and not showing. There were unnecessary details to explain why characters did certain things and it bogged me down. If the author was going for a novel written by a 12/13-year-old she did a great job. Now, the epilogue, most of that was written very well and I enjoyed it more than the rest of the book.
I did enjoy the introduction I got to Pakistani culture, geology, and spiritualism. The issue of the main character being half-and-half was beautiful. The inner conflicts of such a character were portrayed nicely.
All in all, definitely two stars - It was okay. Thanks for the read.
I won a free copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.
I was interested in this book mostly for the subject matter. I don't know much if anything about Pakistan in the late 1970s. I'm always interested in learning about new places and times and the history. So, I was excited to receive this book.
I was disappointed with the narration. A LOT of telling and not showing. There were unnecessary details to explain why characters did certain things and it bogged me down. If the author was going for a novel written by a 12/13-year-old she did a great job. Now, the epilogue, most of that was written very well and I enjoyed it more than the rest of the book.
I did enjoy the introduction I got to Pakistani culture, geology, and spiritualism. The issue of the main character being half-and-half was beautiful. The inner conflicts of such a character were portrayed nicely.
All in all, definitely two stars - It was okay. Thanks for the read.
September 29, 2017
My second reading of City of Spies was just as enjoyable as the first back in 2015. And the truth in the sentence..."we are defined by the wars we have lived, regardless of whether we can name them." hits way to close to home. An entire generation has been raised in the aftermath of the turmoil that the cold war superpowers helped to create back in the late 70's.
January 31, 2019
Beautifully written. The conflict that Aliya faces as a child of mixed Pakistani - Dutch descent who attends the American school in Islamabad is portrayed in a very nuanced manner. Really loved some parts of the book where this conflict is expressed. When Aliya is asked where she's from for instance, she first replies Austria as that was where she was born, then Holland as thats where her mother is from and then she "confesses" from Pakistan too. The author also tracks the way Aliya's Pakistani identity evolves through her relationship with Sadiq beautifully. Liked the book's ending but would have loved if it was shorter or arranged a bit differently, After reading an epilogue and then a postscript, found myself getting very impatient.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2018
Very authentic story of formative events in the life of Aliya, a young "half and half" girl in Pakistan in 1979. Slightly choppy writing style, but good details of daily life and comparisons with the life of an expat American family. Best written part, though, was the epilogue from the adult Aliya.
July 27, 2025
3.5 🌟
The book is an interesting account of the authors childhood in Islamabad during dramatic personal and political events that shaped her life and the world. It does meander a bit at times.
The book is an interesting account of the authors childhood in Islamabad during dramatic personal and political events that shaped her life and the world. It does meander a bit at times.
October 13, 2017
I've been transported into an unfamiliar world, yet I feel completely comfortable. In this third novel from Sorayya Kahn, the calmness of her prose carries me effortlessly through the fascinating tale of a young girl's awakening. I imagined myself a thirteen year old girl, trying to understand events and people while struggling to fit in due to dual nationalities and the benefits of worldly experiences.
As always with her work, Kahn teaches me not just history, culinary delights, and place, but political perspective as well. I enjoyed the learning. Helps for understanding and that can only be a good thing.
As always with her work, Kahn teaches me not just history, culinary delights, and place, but political perspective as well. I enjoyed the learning. Helps for understanding and that can only be a good thing.
December 2, 2018
This is not a bad book, but it is not for me. It is also not what I expected, based on the synopsis. This is a slow-paced, fictional memoir of a young girl, based on real events in Pakistan in the late 1970s. I found it to be a slog to get through, and only finished because it was my pick for book club. I expected more insight into the Cold War activities in Pakistan. I’m a sucker for spy novels, but other than the notes about special license plates and the narrator’s internal thoughts about who might or might not be a spy, there was nothing of interest here. This is day-in-the-life type story, and it just is not my cup of tea.
February 9, 2018
SO, it started good and there were moments that I got engaged and really thought it was going somewhere...but then nothing. I guess that's the risk with reading someones memoirs. I didn't think it was very exciting. Something does happen very early on that is a big deal, but for me, that was the climax. SO, everything after that was kind of wha wha.
Nonetheless, easy to read, and nice to see a perspective of someone growing up with a multi-culture background in another country. It just didn't have enough zing for me.
Nonetheless, easy to read, and nice to see a perspective of someone growing up with a multi-culture background in another country. It just didn't have enough zing for me.
December 1, 2015
Very well written book about a young, mixed-culture girl growing up in a city misunderstood by most westerners. Half Pakistani and half Dutch, Aliya grows up privileged by local standards; attending the international school in the nation's capital. With one foot in two cultures, she struggles to straddle a precarious balance beam during a time of great strife between her two worlds. I highly recommend this book to anyone.
September 19, 2018
Not a very interesting book. The story is not intriguing. It’s just the life of a girl in Pakistan, but told in a way that you wonder when something is going to happen cause nothing does. Ever. Kinda boring to me, but well written. It just didn’t grab my attention.
December 12, 2018
I don't want to criticize the author, I just don't think this book was for me. I came into it expecting something different from what I'd gotten. I'd only realized that about three hours in but decided to finish anyway.
August 20, 2016
this was a fun read,
its about an 11 year old girl growing up in islamabad during general zias rule
it was well written .
its about an 11 year old girl growing up in islamabad during general zias rule
it was well written .
October 31, 2017
Ms Khan begins her novel with “My parents tell me that we are defined by the wars we have lived, regardless of whether we can name them . They did not have the luxury of not knowing their wars…. Currently, we all live the War on Terror, an endless war that will outlive our children.” A war, I’d like to add, that George Orwell would have said: “I told you so.” Wars that are allowed because there are spies and we believe the lies.
Is this a novel everyone should read? Absolutely, and especially anyone who questions the wars we continue to be involved in. And Khan gives you a real sense of what it’s like to live in Pakistan and what it’s like to be a young girl in Pakistan.
The novel is narrated by Aliya, an eleven-year-old half-and-half (half Pakistani, half Dutch) living in Islamabad, the country’s capital. It is 1977 and there has been a coup: Prime Minister Bhutto has been indicted for murder and imprisoned by General Zia, who proclaims: “no political activity, no gatherings of more than 5 people in public spaces.” Newspapers are “marked by white columns”. The constitution is suspended, the national assembly dissolved, and governors and chief ministers fired. Moreover, during the next 30 months, the country becomes a “playground where both superpowers (the US and USSR) spread mischief. “
In City of Spies, the government spies on its people, especially those in decision-making positions and those loyal to the overthrown minister. This includes Aliya’s father, Jivad, a Pakistani, who moved his family from Austria to Pakistan’s capital when he was appointed the chairman of the country’s Water and Power Development Authority, WAPA.
Because Ailya does not know Urdu (having been raised in Austria) she isn’t allowed to attend Pakistani schools, instead, she takes a 45 minutes bus ride every day (during which spit balls are flung at pedestrians and cyclists) to the American school which serves diplomats e.g., CIA .There, at the school Ailya becomes best friends with Lizzy , an American.
It’s a confusing and chaotic time both in the public and private sphere. Ailya is a half-and half, her best friend, American. Which group does Ailya identify with? When a man exposes himself to her, Ailya, reflecting on the incident thinks: “The word, Amriakan, was hurled at me like a curse and I wondered if the way I felt –small and dirty inside—was how regular bicyclists and pedestrians felt when they were hit with a spitball from the yellow bus . Being labelled American also made me think of the prime minister, dead now, who’d yelled about Americans, calling the elephants … I wondered where I fit in."
Questions of loyalty and identity are further complicated by Lizzy’s Mom, who driving along dark unfamiliar roads, hits a boy , who happens to be the son of Ailya’s family’s servant.
Because Ailya is both “us” and “them”, her perspective helps illuminate our relationship with those who are not “us”. For instance, as I read about the references to the 1979 hostage situation in Iran, I was transport backed to Houston, where on one wall of the low-ceiling room work room where I processed seismic data, was a life-size photo of the Ayatollah Khomeini . His face was nearly obliterated by holes from darts. Most Americans in 1979 were strongly anti-Iranian. Did we ever question the origin of this hate or how it so deeply obliterated our ability to even try to understand another culture? Do we question, now, what keeps the hate alive? Because if we don’t, doesn’t that keep The War on Terror alive and well?
I want a novel with the power to immerse me in another world and this novel does just that: I feel I am seeing Islamabad through Ailya’s eyes: the streets, the Margalla Hills, the bus ride to school , the attack of the American school. And Khan’s novel leaves me haunted with questions about myself, my sense of justice and fairness, so that at the novel’s end, I have not only traveled outside of myself, but I have traveled inside, too.
July 29, 2019
The human story behind the headlines
I grew up with a western perspective on the headlines which form the framework of this novel. For me, a British teenager, Pakistan seemed a scary, forbidding, westerner-averse place and I was grateful that the image on the TV screen or in the newspaper was as close as it came. Then I all but forgot about events such as the killing of the Bhuttos, the American Embassy siege, the hostages in Iran.....until I read this novel.
The world depicted is not scary or westerner- averse. It is one of humanity and compassion, one where the people of Pakistan live companionably side by side with their western neighbours, even knowing that those neighbours may well be spies answerable to a western power. Yes, they resent American involvement in their politics, and yes, there is an awareness of the differences between east and west. The account of the spitting boys on the schoolbus is uncomfortable to read, as is the price paid to compensate Sadiq. However, the central friendship of Aliya and her American friend Lizzy is a metaphor for how people could live once the politics and rivalries are stripped away. Sadly for them, the politics and wider events still do intrude.
The characters in Khan's novel are sympathetically and lovingly depicted. Their refusal to discuss the possibility of evil in people is endearing, although a little more of the Grandfather's directness could have saved them a lot of unhappy speculation about their obviously much loved family servant. Aliya's mother is a wonderful, colourful character and I enjoyed reading about her mouth-watering meals and baking.
It is difficult to summarise what I feel about this book, as I enjoyed it on so many levels. It was certainly interesting as it added a dimension to my knowledge of a period of history which is in my living memory. The narrative is gently compelling as the truth about Sadiq is revealed slowly, and his character takes on greater depth throughout the novel. The humanity of the characters on both sides of the cultural divide between east and west leads to a blurring of that cultural divide. Indeed probably the overriding impression the book has left with me, an optimist, is one of hope - that it's never too late to look behind the headlines about hostages and coups and bombs and guns, and see each other for what we are: fellow human beings.
I grew up with a western perspective on the headlines which form the framework of this novel. For me, a British teenager, Pakistan seemed a scary, forbidding, westerner-averse place and I was grateful that the image on the TV screen or in the newspaper was as close as it came. Then I all but forgot about events such as the killing of the Bhuttos, the American Embassy siege, the hostages in Iran.....until I read this novel.
The world depicted is not scary or westerner- averse. It is one of humanity and compassion, one where the people of Pakistan live companionably side by side with their western neighbours, even knowing that those neighbours may well be spies answerable to a western power. Yes, they resent American involvement in their politics, and yes, there is an awareness of the differences between east and west. The account of the spitting boys on the schoolbus is uncomfortable to read, as is the price paid to compensate Sadiq. However, the central friendship of Aliya and her American friend Lizzy is a metaphor for how people could live once the politics and rivalries are stripped away. Sadly for them, the politics and wider events still do intrude.
The characters in Khan's novel are sympathetically and lovingly depicted. Their refusal to discuss the possibility of evil in people is endearing, although a little more of the Grandfather's directness could have saved them a lot of unhappy speculation about their obviously much loved family servant. Aliya's mother is a wonderful, colourful character and I enjoyed reading about her mouth-watering meals and baking.
It is difficult to summarise what I feel about this book, as I enjoyed it on so many levels. It was certainly interesting as it added a dimension to my knowledge of a period of history which is in my living memory. The narrative is gently compelling as the truth about Sadiq is revealed slowly, and his character takes on greater depth throughout the novel. The humanity of the characters on both sides of the cultural divide between east and west leads to a blurring of that cultural divide. Indeed probably the overriding impression the book has left with me, an optimist, is one of hope - that it's never too late to look behind the headlines about hostages and coups and bombs and guns, and see each other for what we are: fellow human beings.
February 25, 2018
City of Spies - Sorayya Khan
Aliya is a half Pakistani-half Dutch girl living in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Her father moved the family from Vienna to Islamabad to answer the call of duty towards his nation. Just as she is adjusting to life here, there is a military coup and the government is taken over by the radical Islamic General Zia-ul-Haq. She continues her education at the American Embassy school, where she is best friends with Lizzy, whose father is a malaria expert at the American Embassy. But people are often not who they pretend to be and things are not often what they seem to be.
-
Aliya’s household is served by a very loyal help, Sadiq. His son, Hanif is killed in a hit and run accident by an American with diplomatic immunity. The price of Hanif’s life is set to be 50000 rupees, which Sadiq gets as compensation. This event forms the very basis of the novel. In the background, are the various political events of the time that shaped the history of Pakistan; the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Iran hostage crisis and the burning of the American Embassy in Islamabad; and event that directly affects Lizzy. These times enforce Aliya to finally identify herself to be Pakistani instead of the half and half identify that she had so far been struggling with; though she is not sure she is too proud of it.
-
The story is very fast paced and it is evident that the author has drawn tremendously from her personal experience. The book also lays out the political realities of the time and highlights the influence that the American involvement has had on the history and politics of the region. It also makes one ponder why an American life is always more valuable than say for example, a Pakistani one; and on a broader note; how is it even possible to value life in monetary terms. The built up to the climax was great; but the climax itself left a lot more to be desired. And my disappointment with the climax also makes me question the overall verbosity. Overall, this is a good fictional read based on real life incidents based during a tumultuous time; as seen through the eyes of a young girl who despite being physically present, is quite an outsider herself.
Aliya is a half Pakistani-half Dutch girl living in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Her father moved the family from Vienna to Islamabad to answer the call of duty towards his nation. Just as she is adjusting to life here, there is a military coup and the government is taken over by the radical Islamic General Zia-ul-Haq. She continues her education at the American Embassy school, where she is best friends with Lizzy, whose father is a malaria expert at the American Embassy. But people are often not who they pretend to be and things are not often what they seem to be.
-
Aliya’s household is served by a very loyal help, Sadiq. His son, Hanif is killed in a hit and run accident by an American with diplomatic immunity. The price of Hanif’s life is set to be 50000 rupees, which Sadiq gets as compensation. This event forms the very basis of the novel. In the background, are the various political events of the time that shaped the history of Pakistan; the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Iran hostage crisis and the burning of the American Embassy in Islamabad; and event that directly affects Lizzy. These times enforce Aliya to finally identify herself to be Pakistani instead of the half and half identify that she had so far been struggling with; though she is not sure she is too proud of it.
-
The story is very fast paced and it is evident that the author has drawn tremendously from her personal experience. The book also lays out the political realities of the time and highlights the influence that the American involvement has had on the history and politics of the region. It also makes one ponder why an American life is always more valuable than say for example, a Pakistani one; and on a broader note; how is it even possible to value life in monetary terms. The built up to the climax was great; but the climax itself left a lot more to be desired. And my disappointment with the climax also makes me question the overall verbosity. Overall, this is a good fictional read based on real life incidents based during a tumultuous time; as seen through the eyes of a young girl who despite being physically present, is quite an outsider herself.
May 25, 2021
CITY OF SPIES BY SORAYYA KHAN
Many films and books have tried the 'child gaze' to tell tales of wars and tragedy. The innocence inherent in that gaze is unmatched honestly. But it is also a very difficult narrative device to pull off. Most narratives falter and lend their own adult voice to the child's thinking. Hence, the whole thing comes crashing down when children start talking like adults, the story becomes banal and postured.
Thankfully, City of Spies avoided this pitfall and I could feel that the narrator-a 13 year old girl-is thinking and talking her age. The book is a semi autobiographical historical fiction with Sorayya, herself half Dutch half Pakistan, taking us through the tumultuous Zia years in her childhood Islamabad. The Cold War rages on in the background; Bhutto is executed; Islamabad is swarming with American spies;the troubling neighbours, Iran and Afghanistan, are secondary characters in the dense but deeply personal story of Anila and her family. Her father is running WAPDA and her dutch mom is running the household. Having just left Europe, Anila is torn between her conflicting heritages, her identity and sense of belonging.
The book is brutally honest. Anila, just like a child would, risks coming across as unlikeable but that's what I love about the book the most. Its raw coming of age arc in the midst of a nation crumbling. As Anila sits on her American School bus, with rowdiest boys (most of them spoiled sons of foreign emissaries)spit on passersby, she confesses she likes the idea of Pakistanis being spit on because they deserve it. This is when you know Sorayya is not hiding, she is laying her thoughts bare, like a child would. My favourite quotes from the book are:
'Truth is as wide and all encompassing as you let it be, and there is always more of it'
'...death was the same everywhere'
"'Gross', I agreed. Although I felt shame not disgust"
'..did not feel the triumph of being claimed by category or of belonging..'
Many films and books have tried the 'child gaze' to tell tales of wars and tragedy. The innocence inherent in that gaze is unmatched honestly. But it is also a very difficult narrative device to pull off. Most narratives falter and lend their own adult voice to the child's thinking. Hence, the whole thing comes crashing down when children start talking like adults, the story becomes banal and postured.
Thankfully, City of Spies avoided this pitfall and I could feel that the narrator-a 13 year old girl-is thinking and talking her age. The book is a semi autobiographical historical fiction with Sorayya, herself half Dutch half Pakistan, taking us through the tumultuous Zia years in her childhood Islamabad. The Cold War rages on in the background; Bhutto is executed; Islamabad is swarming with American spies;the troubling neighbours, Iran and Afghanistan, are secondary characters in the dense but deeply personal story of Anila and her family. Her father is running WAPDA and her dutch mom is running the household. Having just left Europe, Anila is torn between her conflicting heritages, her identity and sense of belonging.
The book is brutally honest. Anila, just like a child would, risks coming across as unlikeable but that's what I love about the book the most. Its raw coming of age arc in the midst of a nation crumbling. As Anila sits on her American School bus, with rowdiest boys (most of them spoiled sons of foreign emissaries)spit on passersby, she confesses she likes the idea of Pakistanis being spit on because they deserve it. This is when you know Sorayya is not hiding, she is laying her thoughts bare, like a child would. My favourite quotes from the book are:
'Truth is as wide and all encompassing as you let it be, and there is always more of it'
'...death was the same everywhere'
"'Gross', I agreed. Although I felt shame not disgust"
'..did not feel the triumph of being claimed by category or of belonging..'
March 2, 2023
For now, I remain confused: was this fiction?
And, I guess, therein lies the beauty of this novel. The writing is so vivid and nurturing that the story feels less a tale and more an account. Although, to be fair, with nostalgic things can one really point the difference.
Again, back to the writing: it’s a tale of a deeply unsettling tragedy softened and made subtle by the innocence, naivety, faithfulness, and optimism of a child. It’s a story about ills and sins of humans and cities and countries. It’s also a story about kindness. About, relief.
A few days ago (halfway through the novel), I confessed to my date the unease of a foreign eye confirming the dirt and cracks of our society that we locals sweep under the carpet: the hierarchy and power dynamics between the family and the servants: a social class specific grammar, rituals and arrangements, devaluing and exaggerating the value of humanity as per different roles. And, as I wrap this book up, I can’t help but thank Sorraya for that. For pointing out a hypocrisy I have admittedly normalized. It makes me feel uncomfortable but this sound could only be heard if it came from the outside.
All in all, a good reading. This one gets 4 because I’ll read this again. Some day. Maybe in a decade or so.
P.S. Wait, I need to add that when I call her a foreigner, I certainly don’t say that she’s not Pakistani. No. What I mean is that she had comparisons she could make with Austria and Netherlands. That, Pakistan was not the root even if it were her stem. Neither is more important. Neither is less important.
And, I guess, therein lies the beauty of this novel. The writing is so vivid and nurturing that the story feels less a tale and more an account. Although, to be fair, with nostalgic things can one really point the difference.
Again, back to the writing: it’s a tale of a deeply unsettling tragedy softened and made subtle by the innocence, naivety, faithfulness, and optimism of a child. It’s a story about ills and sins of humans and cities and countries. It’s also a story about kindness. About, relief.
A few days ago (halfway through the novel), I confessed to my date the unease of a foreign eye confirming the dirt and cracks of our society that we locals sweep under the carpet: the hierarchy and power dynamics between the family and the servants: a social class specific grammar, rituals and arrangements, devaluing and exaggerating the value of humanity as per different roles. And, as I wrap this book up, I can’t help but thank Sorraya for that. For pointing out a hypocrisy I have admittedly normalized. It makes me feel uncomfortable but this sound could only be heard if it came from the outside.
All in all, a good reading. This one gets 4 because I’ll read this again. Some day. Maybe in a decade or so.
P.S. Wait, I need to add that when I call her a foreigner, I certainly don’t say that she’s not Pakistani. No. What I mean is that she had comparisons she could make with Austria and Netherlands. That, Pakistan was not the root even if it were her stem. Neither is more important. Neither is less important.
October 7, 2017
Sorayya Khan’s novels seem to get better and better. City of Spies is the second of her novels that I have read (and now I need to go out and get Five Queen’s Road!).
Through the eyes of a young “half-and-half”, an adolescent girl of mixed Dutch and Pakistani parentage who isn’t sure in which world she really belongs, we meet characters from both the East and the West whose multifaceted participation in personal and international tragedies slowly reveal their complexity. But never completely. The psyche of an accidental killer (but is it ever really an accident?) is obscured and transmuted by the love of her family. A grieving father, who to our narrator is parent and servant and sibling all at once, startles us with the subtlety of his moral reactions to his countrymen and foreigners alike. Even a man who has lived his entire life in Lahore and Islamabad is a “half-and-half”.
Against the confidently drawn backdrop of 1970s Islamabad (which the author renders as utterly familiar), we spy on these characters, many of them spies themselves of one kind or another. We think we’ve learned enough to judge, only to discover on the next page, or the one after it, that we know so little. “You think so little of me,” one of the characters admonishes our narrator. In the end the author understands, and helps us to remember, that other people are never fully knowable, and it is exactly this mystery that gives City of Spies its tremendous narrative power.
Through the eyes of a young “half-and-half”, an adolescent girl of mixed Dutch and Pakistani parentage who isn’t sure in which world she really belongs, we meet characters from both the East and the West whose multifaceted participation in personal and international tragedies slowly reveal their complexity. But never completely. The psyche of an accidental killer (but is it ever really an accident?) is obscured and transmuted by the love of her family. A grieving father, who to our narrator is parent and servant and sibling all at once, startles us with the subtlety of his moral reactions to his countrymen and foreigners alike. Even a man who has lived his entire life in Lahore and Islamabad is a “half-and-half”.
Against the confidently drawn backdrop of 1970s Islamabad (which the author renders as utterly familiar), we spy on these characters, many of them spies themselves of one kind or another. We think we’ve learned enough to judge, only to discover on the next page, or the one after it, that we know so little. “You think so little of me,” one of the characters admonishes our narrator. In the end the author understands, and helps us to remember, that other people are never fully knowable, and it is exactly this mystery that gives City of Spies its tremendous narrative power.
December 4, 2017
City of Spies by Sorayya Khan is set in Islamabad in the late 1970s, a turbulent time for Pakistan. Primre Minister Zulfiqar Bhutto has been deposed by a general and is eventually hung. The U.S. Embassy is burned to the ground. There is personal tragedy as well in the home of Aliya Shah, an 11-year-old girl, who narrates the story. Her perspective is complicated: her father is Pakistani, her mother is Dutch, and she attends the American School. Aliya is just at the age where she questions everything, but the adults around her answer questions obliquely or not at all. It is clear to readers that she is wise to be skeptical. As the story unfolds with Aliya as the central spy in a city of spies, I eagerly followed her efforts to solve a mystery that concerns many of cultural clashes in Islamabad. The denouement brought me to tears. There is much to be learned about this important area of the world and about human nature as differing cultures encounter each other—and about the foods that express these different cultures. I became hungry for both Pakistani food and the Dutch treats that Aliya’s mother made at holiday times. (The American food that arrived by plane for diplomats is less appetizing.) City of Spies is a wonderful “read.” The prose is graceful and satisfying. I wouldn’t classify it as a “political” novel. It is a novel about life in a complicated part of the world.
September 20, 2017
This is story about identity, family, and politics. What makes us who we are? Where should our loyalty lie? The unique perspective, from that of a child, that begins an uncertain journey of an outsider, that continues to question the why's of her existence, and covers topics as varied as national identity, government politics, riots, and family bonds; it manages to seamlessly weave all these pieces together and give closure in the end.
Wonderful descriptions that draw me in. Written from the perspective of a girl as she grows up in Pakistan the daughter of a Pakistan father and Dutch mother. When she arrives as a child from Europe she barely speaks Urdu, she is an outsider, and must attend the American school with diplomat children. After the family relocates to Pakistan the general initiates a government take over. The majority of the story occurs after the take over, with the accompanying upheaval.
Definitely worth a read. I couldn't put it down.
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway.
Wonderful descriptions that draw me in. Written from the perspective of a girl as she grows up in Pakistan the daughter of a Pakistan father and Dutch mother. When she arrives as a child from Europe she barely speaks Urdu, she is an outsider, and must attend the American school with diplomat children. After the family relocates to Pakistan the general initiates a government take over. The majority of the story occurs after the take over, with the accompanying upheaval.
Definitely worth a read. I couldn't put it down.
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway.
November 30, 2022
There were a lot of things I liked about this book. It didn’t feel like a classic YA story at all as it didn’t centre romance at all. Instead the love it focused on was familial, it was friendship, it was love for community and for oneself.
It explored the confusion of a child/ youth living through upheaval incredibly well. It was in many ways a beautiful coming of age story that explored identity and duality. It also offered the reader insight into the impacts that harmful global affairs have at the individual and community level.
However, the book felt like it was missing something that I couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the fact that her siblings didn’t play a role in the story?
Because we are looking at the story through the eyes of a child / youth who isn’t being given all the information the story does leave us with gaps and jump around. And that part is well thought through, but it still left the book wanting.
It explored the confusion of a child/ youth living through upheaval incredibly well. It was in many ways a beautiful coming of age story that explored identity and duality. It also offered the reader insight into the impacts that harmful global affairs have at the individual and community level.
However, the book felt like it was missing something that I couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the fact that her siblings didn’t play a role in the story?
Because we are looking at the story through the eyes of a child / youth who isn’t being given all the information the story does leave us with gaps and jump around. And that part is well thought through, but it still left the book wanting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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