The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad - 3 stars

[Joy D]

The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad - 3* - My Review

This book’s description makes it sound like a police procedural. It is not. It is a complex story set mostly in Pakistan with multiple threads that span many decades. The search for what happened to the victim is only one of storylines. We learn about protagonist Faraz Ali’s complicated family history, his father’s actions as a soldier during WWII, the hostilities in Dhaka during Bangladesh’s struggle for independence in 1971, and the backstories of Faraz’s sister, an actress, and mother, a sex worker.

It is nicely written, but very ambitious and slow in developing. It is not for anyone looking for lots of action, so billing it as a detective story was probably a mistake. Overall, I would call it a family saga that explores themes of class, opportunities (or lack thereof), the difficulties faced by aging women, the plight of sex workers, and conflicts/wars through the decades. It jumps around quite a bit, back and forth through different timelines. I had to look up a number of terms, and it could have used a glossary. I liked it enough to read another book by this author. I think it would make a good mini-series.