Hell's Gate: Death In Karachi

by Nick Bentley

Karachi, in Pakistan, is a city of twenty million souls. It is riven by political, inter-faith and internecine strife, making it one of the world’s most dangerous hotspots. It also lies on the same geological fault lines that connect Bam in southern Iran to Gujarat in southwest India. When it is devastated by a massive earthquake, the Cords, a British expatriate family, find themselves isolated and unprotected in a volatile and highly dangerous situation. Islamic fundamentalists see this as an opportunity to promote their political ambitions, and other groups form to protect themselves through safety in numbers. Neither the Pakistani government nor the international community are able to provide emergency aid due to political and infrastructural constraints. The lengths to which the Cords and a group of friends are driven in order to survive have far-reaching consequences, not just for the family, but also for the politics of the region.

156 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2004

About the author

Nick Bentley is Senior Lecturer in English at Keele University, UK. Previous publications include Contemporary British Fiction: A Reader’s Guide to the Essential Criticism (2018), Martin Amis (2015) and The 2000s: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction (co-edited with Nick Hubble and Leigh Wilson, 2015).