In the City by the Sea - Tapa blanda

'Lively, playful, provocative' Anita Desai 'A touching and engrossing story ... an assured debut' The Times 'A colourful and peripatetic view of politics in Pakistan ... an interesting and promising novel' Guardian 'Full of fun, longing and wit ... a debut of spirit and imagination, loaded with intelligent charm' Ali Smith, Scotsman

Hasan is eleven years old. He loves cricket, pomegranates, the night sky, his clever, vibrant artistic mother and his etymologically obsessed lawyer father, and he adores his next-door neighbour Zehra. One early summer morning, while lazing happily on the roof, Hasan watches a young boy flying a yellow kite fall to his death. Soon after, Hasan's idyllic, sheltered family life is shattered when his beloved uncle Salman, a dissenting politician, is arrested and charged with treason. Set in a land ruled by an oppresive military regime, this eloquent, charming and quietly political novel vividly recreates the confusing world of a young boy on the edge of adulthood, and beautifully illustrates the transformative power of the imagination.