The Geometry of God

Uzma Aslam Khan chronicles the struggle of one family in Pakistan during and after President-General Zia's administration as it battles on the side of evolution against creationism and fundamentalism. Accompanying her paleontologist grandfather on a field dig, eight-year-old Amal stumbles upon a major scientific discovery: a dog/whale like ear-bone fossil. As Amal and her sister grow older, political tensions in their country escalate. Their grandfather, Zahoor, refuses to stop teaching evolution and becomes the focal point of a smear campaign put forth by the Party of Creation. Zahoor becomes a public pariah after being blamed for converting Norman Anwar, a former Party member responsible for censoring textbooks. As the nation moves toward the twenty-first century, Amal takes on her grandfather's love of science and breaks ground as a woman in the academia of an Islamic nation. Khan attempts to write the novel from the perspectives of the four main characters, ultimately causing long, drawn-out chapters that are often redundant. Too many anecdotes make an otherwise interesting storyline a bear to read.