The Return of Faraz Ali

A Novel

By: Aamina Ahmad

Narrated by: Homer Todiwala, Nina Wadia

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND NPR

WINNER OF THE 2023 L.A. TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD

“Stunning not only on account of the author’s talent, of which there is clearly plenty, but also in its humanity.” —New York Times Book Review (cover)

Sent back to his birthplace—Lahore’s notorious red-light district—to hush up the murder of a girl, a man finds himself in an unexpected reckoning with his past.

Not since childhood has Faraz returned to the Mohalla, in Lahore’s walled inner city, where women continue to pass down the art of courtesan from mother to daughter. But he still remembers the day he was abducted from the home he shared with his mother and sister there, at the direction of his powerful father, who wanted to give him a chance at a respectable life. Now Wajid, once more dictating his fate from afar, has sent Faraz back to Lahore, installing him as head of the Mohalla police station and charging him with a mission: to cover up the violent death of a young girl.

It should be a simple assignment to carry out in a marginalized community, but for the first time in his career, Faraz finds himself unable to follow orders. As the city assails him with a jumble of memories, he cannot stop asking questions or winding through the walled city’s labyrinthine alleyways chasing the secrets—his family’s and his own—that risk shattering his precariously constructed existence.

Profoundly intimate and propulsive, The Return of Faraz Ali is a spellbindingly assured first novel that poses a timeless question: Whom do we choose to protect, and at what price?

Beautiful story

The story is absolutely amazing very sad and so real.

The author Amina Ahmad has done an excellent job.

Powerful

A real education. Loved the sensitivity given to such a difficult topic. All to real for anyone who has seen this portion of Lahore. A must read/ listen.

A bit long

but absolutely worth it. Tells a story of Pakistan without pandering to an Anglo audience.

Heartbreaking & complex, but faulty narration

The mispronunciation of numerous names and words particularly by the male narrator was disappointing and distracting from what otherwise is a complex and heartbreaking story detailing complicated family dynamics and common difficulties and injustices faced by Pakistani women and men, set in various historical times before and after partition. I really wish a native Urdu speaker would have narrated this book or that I had read it via a physical book instead. If you are from the subcontinent or a native Urdu speaker, I would not recommend the audiobook!

Awful narration

The man who narrates is so awful that he ruins the book. Horrible fake accent.