The Golden Legend by Nadeem Aslam

The Golden Legend

Nadeem Aslam

A powerful novel which takes the reader on a journey of terror and cruelty in Pakistan in the 1970s. A time of religious fanaticism and with a precarious state of government it is all too easy to fall foul of both factions. Nassud, whose husband dies as a result of a shooting, is forced to flee along with Helen, a Christian and Imran, a refugee from Kashmir. Atmospheric and scary, it brings it home that these are very recent events.

Extract
A few hours before he was killed, Massud woke at the call to the predawn prayer. It was issuing from the loudspeakers attached to the minaret just

across the lane. He imagined the worshipers approaching the eighteenth-century mosque in silence, some of them carrying lanterns. The sight of

empty shoes at the thresholds of mosques had always made him think that the men had been transformed into pure spirit just before entering. After the

call the smell of bread drifted to him from the house behind the mosque, where the cleric lived, the man's daughter rising at this houir to prepare a meal

for him.
Parallels
  • Kartography by Kamila Shamsie
  • Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman