Author A A Jafri
Genre Literary Fiction
Published by Penguin Random House
The cultural fact was that conflicts were resolved through silent afflections, not through exaggerated emotions.
Of smokeless fire, page 281
A magnificent novel, by A. A Jafri, revolving around Mansoor; son of a well-known barrister Noor-ul-Haq, Mehrun; an ambitious girl employed as a house help at Mansoor’s household and Joseph; a bhangi, the untouchable whose life is destined to clean shit-holes of the affluent.
The friendship between Mansoor, Mehrun, and Joseph will touch your heart. The social and political setup of Pakistan, the unhappiness of Noor; Mansoor’s father-who had migrated from India post-partition, the religious fanaticism, the persecution of Ahmadis, and the way Noor raises his son will strike a chord or two with your own conscience.
The novel encompasses so many issues. The political unrest of Pakistan, the social and economic gap between the wealthy and the poor, and the unsettling difference between the extremely religious and rationalist thinkers, to name a few.
Laced with the folklores of djinns and churails, Jafri weaves a beautiful story of belongingness, separation, and rearing fractured relationships. Everything has been said about the rich and the poor, patriotism and questioning your country and religion and its role in shaping our personalities. But the story is said in such a captivating way that the pain of the characters lives with you forever.
Like two people living a frctured life, seperated by abstractions, they pretended to have patched up their differences in utter silence.
Of smokeless fire, page 281
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