“Broken Verses” at first is repetitive and confusing. Luckily for author Kamila Shamsie, she turns it around before the novel becomes a loss. As in her previous ones (“Salt and Saffron,” “Kartography,” “In the City by the Sea”), Shamsie places her story in contemporary Karachi, Pakistan. She draws on the love of her birthplace and the mystery of modern-day Pakistan to tell her story.
Aasmaani, daughter of famous Pakistani political activist and feminist Samina Akram, longs to see her mother, who disappeared 14 years ago. Her mother’s lover and Pakistan’s greatest revolutionary poet – known throughout the book as the Poet, or Nazim – came up missing two years later. Both are assumed dead, although there is skepticism. Conspiracies thrive among their followers, making many believe that they are not dead, but rather in hiding.
Their political pursuits put their lives in continuous danger, so the couple wrote letters in code when apart. As a young girl Aasmaani figured out the code and is the only other person who knows it – or is she?
When Aasmaani is given a letter written in this code, the hope of her mother and the Poet being alive rekindles an ache in Aasmaani. She has been on the back burner of her mother’s life for as long as she can remember and longs for reconciliation. Her mother was off fighting for women’s rights and battling mullahs on religious rulings and would often land in jail. The remaining years were often spent following her lover into exile, since his poems also brought him political problems. Meanwhile, Aasmaani was left to be raised by her father and stepmother, feeling abandoned while still loving her mother for everything she fought for.
Aasmaani has become hard from neglect. She doesn’t just have a chip on her shoulder; she seems to be carrying a cinder block, and has a tongue that cuts. She spews out insults and is articulate to a fault, although her plays on language seem contrived. Toward the end, she becomes less angry as she clutches reality and begins to understand why her mother left her.
The best-developed characters in the novel are Aasmaani’s mother and the Poet. The possibility of their reunion keeps us turning the pages, not the mystery of the encrypted letters or even Aasmaani’s desire for her mother. The mystery is too slow, and we never really believe that Aasmaani is in danger. It is the relationships among the characters that make the book interesting.
Shamsie weaves current issues into the story, as she did in “Kartography.” For instance, Aasmaani’s love interest has just returned to Pakistan from the United States and misses his life in America. After 9/11, it felt to him as though he “stopped being an individual and started being an entire religion” – attacking, although fairly, the discrimination and harassment Muslims have incurred since 9/11. The religious issues facing Pakistan, along with and especially women’s rights, are tightly woven into the fabric of the novel as well.
It is a mother’s love Aasmaani needs and wants, or at least some answers for why her mother left her. In the end she gets both, although not in the way she expects.
Shamsie has written four novels in a short amount of time and has an excellent sense of wit and flair for language. She does, however, often stumble clumsily with narrative voice, confusing the reader, and the main character can often be more annoying than entertaining.
Overall, though, it is refreshing to hear a young inspirational voice from a part of the world that is intriguing and alive but more often criticized than embraced. Shamsie has the heart for storytelling, and when she isn’t trying to stand out with over-the-top characters, her talent shines through.
Renée Warner is a freelance writer in Atlanta.
Broken Verses
By Kamila Shamsie
Harcourt, 352 pages, $14
