Season of the Rainbirds

Season of the Rainbirds

Nadeem Aslam

Vintage (2013)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tags: Fiction, Literary, War Military, Cultural Heritage, General Fiction
Fictionttt Literaryttt War Militaryttt Cultural Heritagettt General Fictionttt

From the author of
Maps for Lost Lovers, 
which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Aslam’s exquisite first novel, the powerful story of a secluded Pakistani village after the murder of its corrupt and prominent judge.
Judge Anwar’s murder sets the people of the village on edge. Their anxieties are compounded when a sack of letters, thought lost in a train crash nineteen years ago, suddenly reappears under mysterious circumstances. What secrets will these letters bring to light? Could the letters shed any light on Judge Anwar’s murder? As Aslam traces the murder investigation over the next eleven days, he explores the impact that these two events have on the town’s inhabitants—from Judge Anwar’s surviving family to the journalist reporting on the delivery of the mail packet. With masterful attention to detail and beautiful scenes that set the rhythms of daily life in Pakistan, Aslam creates a lush and timeless world—played out against an ominous backdrop of religious tensions, assassinations, changing regimes, and faraway civil wars.

**

Review

Praise for Nadeem Aslam and
Season of the Rainbirds
“Genuinely exciting. . . . This is one of the most impressive first novels of recent years.” —Salman Rushdie

“[Aslam] has emerged as one of the most exciting and serious British novelists writing now.” —Colm Tóibín

“A model of compact unadorned storytelling.”
—The Observer
(London)

“A real treat.”
—The Daily Telegraph
(London)

“Aslam quietly captures his country’s oppressive past and the ferocity of its religious schisms.” —
The Independent
(London)

“Aslam lovingly explores the daily rhythms and beauties of the Islamic life of his youth, while providing insight into the turbulent modern history of his native land.” —
Publishers Weekly

“Extraordinary. . . . Aslam has created a novel which—grave yet exultant, brutal but compassionate—achieves its complex humanity, and its final affirmations of love and beauty, through a real reckoning with despair and heartbreak.” —Pankaj Mishra,
New York Review of Books
“Richly atmospheric . . . engagingly introspective. . . . Aslam reveals—artfully and heartbreakingly—a psychology at war with itself.” —
The New York Times Book Review
“Stylistically dazzling, full of poetic, richly descriptive and tender passages. . . . His characters’ inner lives are explored in-depth, flaws and all. . . . A novel as affecting as it is provocative.” —
Los Angeles Times Book Review

About the Author

Nadeem Aslam is the author of three highly acclaimed novels:
Season of the Rainbirds
, which won a Betty Trask Award;
Maps for Lost Lovers
, which was a
New York Times
Notable Book, winner of the Kiriyama Prize, shortlisted for the IMPAC prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize; and, most recently,
The Wasted Vigil.
He is also the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship. Born in Pakistan, he lives in England.

Praise for Nadeem Aslam and

Season of the Rainbirds

“A model of compact unadorned storytelling.”

—The Observer
(London)

“A real treat.”

—
The Daily Telegraph
(London)

“Aslam quietly captures his country’s oppressive past and the ferocity of its religious schisms.”

—The Independent
(London)

“Aslam lovingly explores the daily rhythms and beauties of the Islamic life of his youth, while providing insight into the turbulent modern history of his native land.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Extraordinary.… Aslam has created a novel which—grave yet exultant, brutal but compassionate—achieves its complex humanity, and its final affirmations of love and beauty, through a real reckoning with despair and heartbreak.”

—Pankaj Mishra,
The New York Review of Books

“Richly atmospheric … engagingly introspective.… Aslam reveals—artfully and heartbreakingly—a psychology at war with itself.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“Stylistically dazzling, full of poetic, richly descriptive and tender passages.… His characters’ inner lives are explored in-depth, flaws and all.… A novel as affecting as it is provocative.”

—
Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A novel of extraordinary quality. Islamists would be foolish to try and make political mischief out of it, while western readers would be foolish to ignore such a carefully crafted work.”

—The Economist

“Aslam’s prose soars, dazzling images abound.… Through the opulence of his writing and the darkness of his message Aslam quite brilliantly and shockingly seduces his reader.… A tale that is both Shakespearean and horrifically topical.… Beautiful and only too real, this story born of romance and pain matches its artistry with courage. It is an important novel and also a very fine one.”

—
The Irish Times

“Remarkable.… Rich and beautifully wrought.”

—The Boston Globe

“Aslam is a rich and vividly metaphorical writer.… This is an exquisitely sad novel, and it is worth the effort of letting its spell take you over.”

—
Newsday

NADEEM ASLAM
Season of the Rainbirds

Nadeem Aslam is the author of three highly acclaimed novels:
Season of the Rainbirds
, which won a Betty Trask Award;
Maps for Lost Lovers
, a
New York Times
Notable Book, winner of the Kiriyama Prize, shortlisted for the IMPAC Prize, and long-listed for the Booker Prize; and, most recently,
The Wasted Vigil
. He is also the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship. Born in Pakistan, he lives in England.

Also by Nadeem Aslam

MAPS FOR LOST LOVERS

THE WASTED VIGIL

FIRST VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL EDITION, MARCH 2013

Copyright © 1993 by Nadeem Aslam

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in the United Kingdom by Andre Deutsch Limited, an imprint of the Carlton Publishing Group, London, in 1993.

Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage International and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Aslam, Nadeem.
Season of the rainbirds / Nadeem Aslam.
—First Vintage International edition.
p. cm.
1. Judges—Crimes against—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—
Fiction. 3. City and town life—Pakistan—Fiction.
4. Pakistan—Fiction. 5. Political fiction. I. Title.
PR9540.9.A83S4 2013
823′.914—dc23
2012040072

eISBN: 978-0-345-80283-5

www.vintagebooks.com

Cover photographs: (lower) © Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos; (parchment) © Oote Boe
Cover design by Gabriele Wilson Design

v3.1

For Naeema

Contents

Cover

About the Author

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Note

Principal Characters

Wednesday

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Glossary of Urdu Words

NOTE

All characters in this novel are fictional; most of the events are, too. However:

– the terrorist attack mentioned in ‘Wednesday’ (
chapter 7
) is based on the first attempt on General Zia’s life: on 7 February 1982, the Al-Zulifiquar (the terrorist team led by Benazir Bhutto’s brother, Murtaza) fired a SAM-7 missile at a plane carrying the General.

– The
Little Green Book
containing the ‘President’s thoughts’, mentioned in ‘Thursday’ (
chapter 8
), did exist; it was commissioned by Ayub Khan during his rule (1958–69).