This is different than my usual reading, and I enjoyed it a bunch.The writer is from Pakistan; he puts together eight stories with quite a bit of overlap among the characters. It centers around a wealthy landowner named K.K. Harouni; he is now quite old and has gradually been selling off ancestral lands to cover failed ventures, high expenses, etc. The stories pick up various members of his family, but also focus on domestic servants, his key overseers, an electrician working on his properties, etc. Some of the family members are back and forth among London, America, Pakistan, etc.
So it speaks to the transition from feudal(?) Pakistan to very modern times, and it speaks across the social classes and geographies. All of which works very well. The last story is mostly about an old man who built a box-house that he could take with him when he moves (final move is to work on a Harouni property), nice and very sad.
Birthday gift from the Reghabis. Nice.
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