Stranger To History

‘A subtle and poignant work by a young writer to watch’ – V.S. Naipaul ‘An amazing narrative, a kind of Muslim Odyssey’ – Antonia Fraser As a child, all Aatish Taseer ever had of his father was his photograph in a browning silver frame. Raised by his Sikh mother in Delhi, his father, a Pakistani Muslim, remained a distant figure. It was a fractured upbringing which left Aatish with many questions about his own identity. Stranger to History is the story of the journey Aatish made to answer these questions. Starting from Istanbul, Islam’s once greatest city, he travels to Mecca, its most holy, and then home through Iran and Pakistan. Ending in Lahore, at his estranged father’s home, on the night Benazir Bhutto was killed, it is also the story of Aatish’s own divided family over the past fifty years. Part memoir, part travelogue, probing, stylish and troubling, this outstanding work now includes an incisive new introduction which brings Aatish’s story up to date with the horrific assassination of his father in early 2011.