Description

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“Wincingly funny. . . An ambitious book showing Asia through British and American eyes” from the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Daily Mail).

In 1975, an English couple arrives in Karachi, Pakistan. Donald Manley, of Cameron Chemicals, has taken a job as the local sales manager. In Karachi, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his beloved grandfather, who served there during the war. Donald’s wife, Christine, is banking on a change of scenery to help restart their marriage—and their ability to conceive. At the airport, their paths cross with American Duke Hanson, who is seeing his wife off. She’s returning to Kansas, while he’s staying on to oversee the development of a hotel project.

In the stifling heat and dusty, teeming streets, each one of these visitors will face their own crises: Donald, a devastating family secret; Christine, lead astray by her well-intentioned efforts to embrace the culture and start a family; Duke, both professional and personal temptations to his no-nonsense, uncorruptible image of himself. During a season of sweltering days and sultry nights, deals will be made, bonds will be broken, and the spirit of a city with one foot in the past and one in the future will take everyone by surprise.

“Original, perceptive and very entertaining.” —Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Foreign Affairs

“Entertaining, subtle and intelligent.” —The Sunday Telegraph

“No neater entertainment has emerged from the debris of our past on the sub-continent.” —The Guardian

“A piece of technical wizardry.” —The Daily Telegraph

About the Author

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Deborah Moggach is an English novelist and screenwriter. She graduated from Bristol University, trained as a teacher, and then worked at Oxford University Press. In the mid-seventies, Moggach moved to Pakistan for two years, where she started composing articles for Pakistani newspapers and her first novel, You Must Be Sisters. Her novels The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever were adapted for film in 2011 and 2017 respectively.

​Moggach began writing screenplays in the mid-eighties. Her screenplay for an adaption of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley received a BAFTA nomination, and she won a Writers Guild Award for her adaptation of Anne Fine’s Goggle-Eyes. She has served as Chair of the Management Committee for the Society of Authors and worked for PEN’s Executive Committee, as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Moggach currently lives in the Welsh Marches with her husband.
 

Praise For…

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“Original, perceptive and very entertaining.” —Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Foreign Affairs

“Entertaining, subtle and intelligent.” —The Sunday Telegraph

“No neater entertainment has emerged from the debris of our past on the sub-continent.” —The Guardian

“A piece of technical wizardry.” —The Daily Telegraph