A powerful and accomplished debut novel, spanning the decades since World War II, centred on life in the Mohalla, Lahore's walled red-light district, and those trying to escape from its clutches, providing fascinating insights to the politics, culture and class structure of the region

Faraz, the son of a senior politician, is taken by force from his family in the Mohalla at a young age to give him better prospects and save him from a life of poverty. As an adult, the memories of that day continue to haunt him and he still doesn't fully understand what happened.

Now a policeman, Faraz is asked to discretely handle and bury the investigation into the killng of a young girl in the Mohalla. Returning to the place he spent the first few years of his life brings back traumatic memories, especially when he learns that the children play a game with haunting similarities to the dreams which plague him.

Whilst he tries to learn more about his past, his family try to avoid any connection which would bring shame on him.

At the same time, his half-sister who has become an actress, is also facing a return to the Mohalla to try to support her family.

This is a powerful debut novel. The story is told over multiple timelines and at times it was confusing. It is well plotted and written well

The download date was unfortunately missed, I would be happy to re-review if it became available again. I have awarded stars for the book cover and description as they both appeal to me. I would be more than happy to re-read and review if a download becomes available. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter). Thank you.

Wow, this book demonstrates incredible talent for a novice author. The characters are flawed yet charming, and the corruption is all too believable. The plot is captivating. Ahmd incorporates aspects of detective fiction into a literary investigation of the crushing responsibilities of parenthood. The story is written in interspersed chapters, demonstrating Ahmad's mastery of structure and plot.

The novel jumps back and forth in time from Pakistan in the 1940s to the 1970s, with WWII Libya also playing a part. In order to grasp the actions and allegiances in the main plot line, the reader must be familiar with the historical incidents that connect the main characters, but it is well written and these links become apparent. Wajid and Faraz make decisions that they believe will protect those who are deserving of their protection but instead compromise their moral and personal integrity as well as their eligibility for any form of love or atonement.
A great read.

I unfortunately had to DNF this book as it was very difficult to follow the advance galley on the e-reader. The story seems interesting and intriguing, might pick it up as an audibook.

This was a confusing one for me. I enjoy detective novels and my interest was especially piqued by the less usual setting of Lahore in the 1930s, 40s and 60s. However, I often found myself confused despite the provision of locations and dates at the beginnings of chapters.
The central character, Police Inspector Faraz Ali, is not introduced as the usual positive image that many detective novels will use. His actions and thoughts are quite shocking for a supposed upholder of the law. But then, as a modern western European, you remind yourself that the place and time are very different so this makes him more interesting. Indeed, Ahmad leads you to feel that he does what he feels he has to, in order to survive.
The complications arising for the main characters do provide interest – enough for me to keep reading it although I often found myself frustrated with it.
Although this was quite a gloomy read for me, this could be the very reason others who want a move away from the easier reading or procedural detectives will appreciate this.

Thank you to Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton) and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Against a backdrop of corruption and political upheaval, one man at least strives for integrity. Over three time frames we learn how the lives of our central players are intertwined, how their characters are formed and why to some extent they take the decisions they do. Ultimately though, it is one man’s search for his lost family.

Some sections are more compelling and work better than others. The story which marks the beginning of the novel is forgotten in the midst of all the other ‘life stories’ so much so that when again a name resurfaced right at the end I had to dig deep to remember who that person was.

I am sure that this writer will go on to achieve greater success in the future.

I loved the detail in this book and a new world it opened up for me. One to remember, that’s for sure!

Right from the beginning you are drawn into Faraz's world. While I struggled over the pronunciation of some of the native words, I loved the detail that went into the telling of the story.

I really like how different this book is from other fiction novels that are set in the Middle East. It focuses on the more average life of the people of Pakistan, rather then on the war. It was nice to read of the more human side of the country.

I think this can be a great book for many, but I'm not a fan of multiple timelines especially with the level of complexity the story held. I love books with an impact, but reading is for relaxation for me, and when a book reads like a jigsaw puzzle that only assembles at the end, i can lose patience.
Thank you for the arc and good luck.

This book wasn't so much of my style, although it was very well written. It was more violent and graphic than I was expecting. It is in parts long winded and confusing with multiple layers and backstories.

The storyline is complicated, moving between the different characters and periods in time but it does give the story real depth. The story is hard to read at times but is a part of history so needs telling and Aamina Ahmad tells it very well.

A worthwhile read.

I was given a copy of The Return of Faraz Ali by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

It took me some time to get into the writing style and work out who the characters were but when I finally got the hang of it I really 'enjoyed' this novel.. Enjoyed is an odd word to use as was a hard read at times but really rather informative. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

the police brutality in this is hard to stomach and i am not particularly taken by the author's storytelling. i'm sure other readers will find this more thought-provoking than i did.

This superb debut detective fiction is set in Mohalla, the ancient walled red light district of Lahore, where well-thought-of detective Faraz is suddenly reassigned to a new post to help “take care of” the murder of a young girl from the district. As well as being a young father, silently unhappy husband and rising star in the police force, Faraz is also is the unacknowledged son of local dignitary Wajid, having been born out of wedlock to a dancer from the same area of town as the murdered girl. Despite the precariousness of his position, Faraz finds himself unable to cover up the girl’s violent death, and feels a deep sense of injustice at the ruling classes’ attempt to hush up the crime, resolving to investigate – whatever the cost. As he questions the close-knit community surrounding the young girl, he slowly remembers more about his past in the same streets and alleyways, recalling the few short years he spent with his mother and sister before being abducted by his absent father and given the opportunities that led him to his current position. We also learn more about his father’s motivations, and the relentless, merciless time he spent enduring captivity in Benghazi’s prison camps during WW2 – and how he came to decide to steal his son away from the life fate had seemingly dealt him.

Full of beautiful meditations on aging, the importance of family – whether biological or the one you forge for yourself – and escaping from or reconnecting with one’s roots, this is an evocative and compelling first novel from writer Aamina Ahmad that also serves as a good reminder that politics is always personal at some level. Not to be missed.

Featured in the April edition of Cambridge Edition Magazine

This is a long and quite complex read in that there are many characters and different timelines. It’s rather like a jigsaw; each section of narrative is a small piece in a much larger picture which eventually draws together, it’s incredibly well written and for that reason alone, stick with it because it’s rich in detail and covers so numerous themes, many very relevant today.

Ive long been appalled by the way in which India was partitioned. That issue is touched upon and as someone brought up in the West, it’s difficult to fully understand all the regional, religious and cultural differences that are a part of India. This story explores many of those themes but from a new and very different perspective. It’s original, filled with insight and overall it’s a book that’s stayed with me and encouraged me to find out more about the period and issues. Absolutely fascinating and I hope there’s more from Aaminha Ahmad.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

This is the story of Faraz Ali, born in the walled city of Lahore in the 1940s to a woman of the Kanjar community – a caste associated with the prostitution business and a place in society, that under normal circumstances would be impossible to leave. At a very young age, Faraz however is removed from this environment and we meet him in his early twenties, when he works for the police and is being asked to lead the cover-up of a crime that was committed in his birth community.

This takes Faraz back to his roots and the deeper he gets into it, the stronger grows his sense of belonging. His search for the truth combines with the search for what happened to him and his family all these years ago. It sends the reader on journey of discovery. I found the culture of the Kanjar people alien and fascinating and it forced me to read up on a few things in order to get a better understanding of the unfolding story. But this story is also set within the wider context of political and societal change related to big historical events: partition, the Bengali’s fight for independence, it even touches on the role Indian and Pakistani soldiers played in the British army in World War II.

This is not a linear tale – it switches between the stories of different people at different times – but it is well told so that putting the pieces together becomes part of an interesting and enjoyable reading experience.

I found it fascinating to immerse myself into a world that I had very little knowledge and no experience of- but I particularly connected with the women of the story – Faraz’ mother, sister and wife – and felt that no matter how culturally different we are, there are so many themes that resonate across cultural boundaries and religious divides. - A book I can wholeheartedly recommend – it took me into a world very different to my own and this is precisely what makes it a good book for me.

I am grateful to NetGalley and SCEPTRE/Hodder&Stoughten for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An accomplished layered story of a family that moves between WWII and the early 1970s Pakistan. Wajid, privileged enough to study at Eton and Sandhurst, also visited the kanjaris of the Mohalla, the famous walled city notably Firdous who becomes the mother of his son Faraz. He plucks Faraz from the Mohalla but leaves behind Firdous and her daughter Nazir. Years later, Wajid sends Faraz to wrap up and push the murder of 12 year old Sonia under the rug, bringing Faraz back to world he left. Nazir, an actress who in recent years has lived as a mistress, left her daughter Mina to be raised by Firdous. All of this begins to implode as Faraz starts to look for his mother and sister, confronts Wajid, and pushes buttons in the corrupt world in which they live. Faraz's crisis of identity collides with Wajid's need to hide his past and with Nazir's effort to keep herself and her family alive. So much happens. It's an atmospheric novel that's very much about the search for identity. One quibble- the end. No spoilers. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Excellent read.

This book took me a very long time to read. Partly I was taking it slowly to enjoy the writing, but partly I have to say that it was just too darned complicated. There are too many storylines from too many time periods and they don't entirely knit together.

I read a lot about Pakistan, Bangladesh and India and I did find new perspectives in this book. It was a novel approach to take a child from his home and his mother to be brought up in another place with another family, and then used by his bio-father many years later to cover up a crime. I'll give a good score for the novelty value.

We get to meet a lot of characters at a lot of times. We are in North Africa with a captured Indian officer fighting with the British and his friend who later becomes a big hotshot politician. We are in the red light district of Lahore at multiple different periods in time. We are in Bengal during the Bangladeshi independence war and then in India in a POW camp after that war. We bounce between the eponymous here, Faraz Ali, and his estranged sister the fading filmstar beauty, her daughter, her mother, her various lovers, and then Faraz's bio-father, that man's friends and a cast of red light hangers on. It really is all over the place.

The timings are interesting. There is far more time given to the role of soldiers from the sub-continent in WW2 than there is for the 1947 Partition of India. Since every writer that spans that time always includes Partition, its absence was notable. I've read a lot - in as much as there aren't that many - of books set during the later split of East and West Pakistan into Bangladesh and the smaller Pakistan - but this one is very light on the horrors of that conflict compared to most.

This book contains so much potential but gets a bit lost. I'm not entirely sure I really knew who killed the young prostitute as the 'reveal' at the end was rather light considering how long we took over getting there. And much was hinted at the rise of General Bhutto, but never really fleshed out. Corruption abounds but concrete revelations are hard to find.

I'll read this author again but I would recommend they get an editor who is willing to be a bit more forceful in keeping the focus of the story in the right places.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

The Return of Faraz Ali is a is a multilayered and multigenerational family saga spanning from the Mohalla in Lahore (the walled-off world of Lahore’s red-light district), to Dhaka and London over the course of this wonderful debut novel where power, influence and corruption reign true in a caste ridden society.

The novel starts as a murder mystery novel with a young mid-level police man dispatched to a crime scene in the Mohalla. A child prostitute has been murdered and he has been sent by his influencial father Wajid to cover it up and make the problem go away. Unfortunately, returning to the Mohalla rakes up old childhood memories for Faraz as he had been born there. His mother was a Kanjari, and he had been taken from her and his sister as a young child by his father and raised by distant relatives so he could have a better life. Rather than cover the problem, he starts seeking answers in the dark alleys and labyrinths of Mohalla.

We then are brought to Dhaka during the 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh, London and POW camps as we learn more about the personal family secrets and politics of this region which culminated in the event that Faraz was asked to cover up.

It's a wonderful multilayered debut novel which explores hidden secrets and loss which I found rich and thought-provoking and I learnt a huge amount about the history of this region.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.