In middle-class Lahore, the fatherless Zaki Shirazi grows up in an unusual Muslim family, a family of women. The matriarchs of his world are strong and outspoken: his mother, Zakia, is a journalist and activist; his paternal grandmother, Daadi, is a shrewd navigator of the mores of her culture; his slightly older cousin, Samar Api, acts as his beloved ally and friend; and Naseem, the stalwart servant woman, is a sharpeyed judge of character. Through the lives of these remarkable women (and in flashback to the life of Zaki's father), we are drawn into a family's story through nearly fifty years of partition, wars, coups and upheaval in Pakistani society.

This is a story of love and loss, masterfully written, compellingly told, universally appealing, by a major new international voice.