The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

Bhutto’s promising debut novel is set in the town of Mir Ali, in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The story begins and ends one tragic Friday morning. Aman Erun, the eldest of three brothers, has returned to his native Mir Ali from America an educated, ambitious businessman. The middle brother, Sikandar, a doctor who lost a son to Taliban violence, has chosen to stay in his war-torn birthplace, accepting the unending conflict while watching his wife, Mina, succumb to madness. The youngest, Hayat, is a quiet member of a Shia separatist group and has become involved with Samarra, the headstrong girlfriend Aman Erun left behind when he went to America. In flashbacks we learn of Aman Erun’s escape to America, and of Sikandar’s crippling cowardice when he and Mina are confronted by Taliban rebels. In the end, Mina and Samarra prove to be stronger and more courageous than all three brothers put together. Bhutto was 14 when her father was murdered, and she’s the young niece of Benazir Bhutto (a Pakistani politician and two-term prime minister who herself was assassinated in 2007). There are large swaths of political rumination: these passages are enlightening but ultimately unnecessary. Though the book is marred by an ending that strains belief, Bhutto’s characters and story are compelling and richly drawn. (Mar.)