A Season for Martyrs (PDF)

<DIV>Bina Shah is a regular contributor to the International <I>New York Times</I> and is a frequent guest on the BBC. She has contributed essays to <I>Granta</I>, <I>The Independent</I>, and <I>The Guardian</I>. She holds degrees from Wellesley College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is an alumna of the University of Iowa&rsquo;s International Writers Workshop. Her novel <I>Slum Child</I> was a bestseller in Italy, and she has been published in English, Spanish, German and Italian. She lives in Karachi.<BR /></DIV>

“In A Season for Martyrs, Bina Shah mixes myth with history and the personal with the political to sing of Sindh in the past and mourn for Pakistan in the present: a musical and mesmerising work.” —Tabish Khair

“A Season for Martyrs not only tells an excellent story, set in the Bhutto years, but deftly interweaves it with the myths of the Sufi saints, who are buried and remembered in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The historical and mythical aspects of this important novel are to be savored: Bina Shah is an admirable writer.” —Bapsi Sidhwa, author of Cracking India

“Listen to the voice of Bina Shah—you will hear a young, confident, compassionate new Pakistan. Her latest novel not only sparkles with wit and wisdom but is a deeply moving paean to the power of love for the author’s Pakistani culture and people.” —Professor Akbar Ahmed, author, playwright, poet, and Chair of Islamic Studies at American University

“An intriguing novel which blends events in contemporary Pakistan with ancient Sindh . . . Bina Shah has drawn heavily on her own cultural heritage, combining fact with fiction, past with living memory. While the contemporary theme of her novel is set against the background of Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan in October 2007 and the events leading up to her assassination in December, the past provides vignettes of iconic personalities in Sindhi history, evoking an old civilization, rich in its diversity and contradictions. A Season for Martyrs also illustrates the transience of individual suffering, where loyalties and beliefs are constantly challenged.” —Victoria Schofield, biographer, military historian, and author of Kashmir in the Crossfire and Bhutto: Trial and Execution