Three years ago, I sold my kidney for a few cans of beans. I did it to save my brother, to save my family.
Saad T. Farooqi reaches beyond the established narratives of Pakistan — family sagas, magical realism, and immigrant stories — to create a post-apocalyptic world that reflects the rampant corruption, martial law, religious bigotry, and violent crimes familiar to any Pakistani.
Little fiction has been written from the perspective of apostates — until now.
Pakistan, 2083 AD.
Allah has burned the sky away. A mysterious snow falls over everything. Is it an endless winter? Is it the result of a nuclear exchange with India? A celestial impact? Now a barren wasteland, what little is left of Pakistan is heavily segregated along religious lines.
For Avaan, a gun in the hand feels as natural as breathing. An apostate pariah living under martial law and religious bigotry, violence has become a way of life. What respite he had from this terrifying world — his brother, his family, and Doua, the love of his life — was snatched away in military raids.
Now broken, Avaan finds himself involved in a civil war that poisons everything he’s ever believed in. The army shadows his every move, a mob boss wants him dead, and a legendary resistance leader has taken a keen interest in him. But there is a ray of hope: Avaan discovers that Doua is alive. Obsessed with finding her, he takes a stand against the army, the mob, and Pakistan itself with the only thing he has ever been able to count on: the gun in his hand.