Rebel English Academy A novel

Pakistan's 1977 military coup sets the stage for this farcical and nightmarish depiction of state-sponsored violence from Hanif (A Case of Exploding Mangoes). Two years after Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is deposed, he's hanged by the new government, sparking intense protests and a wave of self-immolation. When army intelligence captain Gul bungles his assignment to procure a publishable photo of Bhutto's execution, he's banished to the provincial OK Town, where he embarks on a series of drunken sexual escapades. Hanif alternates Gul's story with that of Sabiha Bano, whose husband was found dead in a fire and initially thought to have burned himself in protest against Bhutto's execution. The police discover he was shot, though, and want to question Sabiha, prompting her to hide out at an English language school. Meanwhile, when a drunk Gul finds a videotape of a woman's rape, he falls in love with the woman and vows to save her. Noticing that she speaks English in the video, he searches for her at the school where Sabiha is hiding out, and the two story lines entwine. The conclusion is somewhat abrupt, but Hanif strikes a successful balance between the darkly humorous and the deadly serious, particularly in the depiction of Gul, who devolves from a drunken lout into something more sinister. It's an unsparing view into human depravity. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander. (Feb.)

A gently satirical novel of tangled lives in 1970s Pakistan. Hanif's narrative opens with the hanging of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979. The execution sends shock waves through the nation, not least in a provincial town where a former revolutionary, Sir Baghi, has founded an English-language school to teach the "sons and daughters of peasants and shopkeepers" a skill essential to advancing in Pakistani society long after independence from Britain. Baghi uses an idiosyncratic method, teaching single words, on the theory that these are enough to get most things done. Baghi is at pains from time to time to explain that he has no interest in women, quite unlike his friend Molly, the keeper of the town's mosque: "For a man of Allah, Molly seems to have a slightly frisky relationship with his maker. Within the premises of the House of Allah and barely fifty metres away from his loving and waiting wife, his hanged hero still warm in his grave, Molly is busy testing his faith with a runaway woman." Another runaway enters the scene in the form of a former student who takes lessons from Baghi while avoiding inquisitive government agents. Her homework assignments yield often hilarious, sharp-witted results; instructed to write an essay on bovines, she responds, "I can't write that the cow is Allah's splendorous creation because Sir doesn't believe in the existence of Almighty and His numerous manifestations." One such agent, the villain of the piece, resents being posted to a backwater, but he's diligent in pursuing enemies of the state: "He knows this much about civilians: they bullshit before they get to the point." So they do, and Hanif's novel takes increasingly picaresque turns, with a cameo appearance by the likes of boxing great Muhammad Ali, even as local politics grow ever more violent. An elegantly spun tale that punctures holes in our every expectation of life in an authoritarian state. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.