AS’SALAM O ALAIKUM

Presented By: Muhammad Hasnain

Presented To: Sir Jamaal Ahmad

Book Review on “CITY OF SPIES”

Author: Sorayya Khan

ABOUT AUTHOR

Sorayya Khan is the author of CITY OF SPIES (2015). Over the years, her work has been published in various literary quarterlies and several anthologies.

She is the daughter of a Pakistani father and a Dutch mother, was born in Europe, and moved to Pakistan as a child. She now lives in New York with her husband and children. She spent part of her childhood in Islamabad and Lahore in 1970’s.

She’s the author of three novels Five Queen’s Road (2006), Noor (2009) and the City Of Spies (2015).

CITY OF SPIES

MAIN IDEA Set in Islamabad and Lahore, this novel is a young girl’s

coming-of-age story that explores her conflicting loyalties and her ongoing struggle to make sense of her world.

Aliya, an eleven year old is struggling in her life, stuck in Americans and Pakistanis, she tries to set apart her school life and personal life.

CITY OF SPIES

CHARACTERSAliya Shah The narrator of this novel. She’s a smart girl whose father is Pakistani and mother is

Dutch. Who finds herself facing an identity crisis between being

Pakistani or American.

CITY OF SPIES

Javed ShahFather of Aliya.Worked for UN in Austria.The Chairman of WAPDA in 1970’s IreneMother of Aliya, a Dutch converted to Islam. Her Muslim name was Yasmin.

CITY OF SPIES Amir Brother of Aliya. He lived in Cairo for Studies at Al-Azhar. Lehla Sister of Aliya, She lived in New York. Grandfather He lived in Lahore He was deaf but the smartest person in Aliya’s Family.

CITY OF SPIES

Sadiq The one person who, I feel, is the star of the book, is the servant of the family.. Hanif Son of Sadiq. A very beloved boy Who was killed in a car accident

CITY OF SPIES

Lizzy She is the American friend of Aliya. She studied with Aliya at American School in Islamabad

Mr.SimonFather of Lizzy, who worked for the USAID. Lateron, revealed to be a CIA spy.

Anne SimonMother of Lizzy, who was a nurse. Later on became ateacher at Aliya’s School..

CITY OF SPIES

MAIN EVENTS Hanif’s Death The beloved boy, of Aliya’s servant has come to Islamabad for a

change in his life, who had become withdrawn after Bhutto was arrested, for whom he had been worried. He had left playing cricket, his favorite sports or being happy. After coming here, he changed and came to his full life.

In Feb 1978, He was coming back from shopping, having bought new shoes with his father at night. Suddenly a driver came out of nowhere and hit Hanif, killing him at the spot. The death of his son made Sadiq a broken man. Aliya was deeply sorrowful at the death of a small child.

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Prime Minister’s HangingOn, 4th of April 1979 Aliya is told by her father that the prime minister was hanged to death. Hanif was right that “the prime minster will live as long as he lives”. It had been a year since he died and the prime minister arrested for a murder, and sentenced to death. Aliya is affected by this, she felt it humiliating going to the American school, as the prime minister of her country was hanged, that was approved by CIA, fathers’ of the American students.

CITY OF SPIES

American Embassy at Fire As when the seizure in Makkah took place, the Pakistanis were

angry and assumed that the Americans were involved in it. On Wednesday 21st Nov1979, a small crowd of angry locals

had gathered outside the school gates. They were so angry that they set the Embassy on fire. Aliya’s grandfather came to rescue her and drove her home with her friend Lizzy and her brothers also.

The Pakistanis forced Americans to leave the country that night, this was the last day Aliya saw Lizzy.

CITY OF SPIES

SUMMARY In Sorayya Khan’s city of spies, she hints the conflicting loyalties of a

girl to the people around her and is describing Pakistan of 1970’s In the story, Aliya has just turned eleven, her ‘half-half’ mind (with a

Pakistani father and a Dutch mother) is a constant, reflected in her thoughts. General Zia and his strict orders have taken over the Pakistan of 1977 and PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is in jail, soon to be hanged. The Constitution is suspended, the national assembly has been dissolved and the governors and chief ministers fired.

CITY OF SPIES

Little Hanif, her servant’s son, gave up his love for cricket because the imprisoned PM meant something to him. Now, he only prays for his release. Her own sister and brother are to stay in foreign countries, away from their families, away from this military dictatorship. She had an American friend at school, Lizzy. Little Hanif being run over by a car and killed him. It is revealed in the novel that the culprit is Anne Simon, Lizzy’s mother.

Aliya was not just seeking answers to the happenings around her. She was also looking for a whole identity, forced into pieces. When the American school was burned by Pakistanis, she found herself no longer half-half, but now she was suddenly Pakistani.

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The Pakistanis attacked the embassy in the revenge of seizure of the Grand Masjid in Makkah. The attack at the American school and Embassy made the Americans leave Pakistan as soon as possible.

Lizzy, with her family left Pakistan, on that night which left Aliya sad. They left on buses of the school, which were painted from yellow to sky blue.

Sadiq was missing on the night and Aliya follows him, they end up in the 87th street, where the Simon’s lived, she figured out that he was trying to kill Anne Simon but he was not. When the bus had been leaving to take the Americans to the airport her relationship with her servant Sadiq was what left a lasting impression. In a scene towards the end, ‘When the spitball hit my hair, I prayed that Sadiq had been spared,’ says it all. Sadiq was transferred to Lahore with her grandfather, as he was considered unstable due to his behavior the next day. Aliya thought Sadiq was responsible for the embassy attack.

CITY OF SPIES It was years later, she found out what had really happened on that

day in November and finally came to terms with the past. On her last visit to Lahore, she found out Sadiq’s truth of the day on which embassy was burnt. Sadiq had been gone to the Embassy road that day, after the attack he went there to check what was going.

It is revealed that Sadiq had helped a babysitter to escape the embassy that day with Anne Simon’s child. Aliya is ashamed on her thoughts, these many years.

The story ends on everybody settled in their lives and everything changed in the country, except the government, the hills and the melodious azaans. Providing a brief account of her unfortunate country in the years gone by, she feels sad passing by Islamabad and Lahore of her childhood.

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MY VIEWS This delicate political novel evokes the sights and smells of the Pakistan of

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and General Zia. We are inside the head of a child spying on her past. I read this novel as the story of a schoolgirl in Pakistan of 1970’s my country’s historical time.

City of Spies makes such an impressive read for me because of the author’s writing way. The author has written the book wherein words flow like it's in their nature

Aliya is a sensitive and an observant girl, the story has a great narrator who keenly focuses on her surroundings.

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Aliya’s effort to learn Urdu, and finding her whole identity as a Pakistani pleased me.

After reading this novel, it felt that it was a memoir but it wasn’t. It was totally a fictional novel.

Jazak Allah