This darkly funny novel follows three characters trying to navigate the pressures of authority in a small town in Pakistan. Humour relieves some of the unsettling scenes and brings warmth and sympathy to their struggles. Readers who enjoy character-driven or politically engaged fiction will find this novel thrilling and enthralling.
When life changes, you change your life code. So what if the Pindi girl claiming to carry his child, his superiors, even his parents hadn't noticed? He still believes he is a changed man since the night of the hanging.
In his mind Captain Gul is on the path to reform. No long-term relationships, no promises of marriage and children, get in and get out, commando style. [...] Before embarking on his journey to OK town, he had burnt his personal code book where he meticulously noted his exploits and gave his lovers code names. [...] It was all behind him. He was going to do things differently from now on.
He thinks about what to tell his pregnant girl who is two hundred miles away asking searching questions about what he had done on the first night of being back in OK town.
