Dur e Aziz Amna caused a real splash with her debut novel ‘American Fever’ and she’s followed it up with another compelling narrative, this one set in Pakistan in the 1990s/early 2000s. Telling the tale is Tara who draws us into her confidence from the off: “As I tell you my story, will you find it hard to empathise? I am what some call an unrelatable character, and I have done something unthinkable.” Tara is now thirty-five but she begins by telling us all about her life growing up with her family in Mazinager, a village where the inhabitants farm the land and live among their animals. The smell of dung is a constant. After a visit to a big city for the first time, Tara becomes determined to leave village life behind her. She wants – needs – to move in different circles. Holding her back is a crushing patriarchal society exemplified by her older brother. ‘A Splintering’ is a book fraught with tension, and not just because of the shocking misogyny that permeates all strata of society. There’s also class, the push and pull between the provinces and the city, and the often clashing demands of motherhood and ambition. And in Tara, Amna has given us a fully-realised, rounded protagonist. She’s someone who sees all society’s faults, but also someone who rarely criticises the systems that have been put in place to maintain the status quo. Instead, she seeks to overcome any obstacle put in her way by dint of her indefatigable spirit. RM

Published by Duckworth