Mirage

Author: Bandula Chandraratna

Publisher:  Penguin Books India

ISBN: 9780143066392

Format: back

About This Book:

Orphaned as a boy, Sayeed sacrificed his own happiness to care for his younger brother, leaving him and his growing family, their parents’ home and land in a verdant village in an unnamed Muslim country to move to the city, where he lives precariously in a dusty shantytown and works as a hospital porter. On a visit home, he surprises himself by agreeing to his brother’s plan for him to marry a young widow, Latifa.

It is their misfortune to be alive in changing times, when ancient Islamic traditions and codes of honour have become extreme in reaction to Western wealth, customs and expectations. And Latifa becomes the ultimate victim of a tragedy fuelled by petty jealousy, sexual desire and religious fervour.