IN THE TIME OF THE OTHERS

IN THE TIME OF THE OTHERS NADEEM ZAMAN

East Pakistan. March 1971. Imtiaz Khan arrives at his uncle’s house in Dhaka for what he thinks will be a quick visit, only to be held back when the Pakistan Army makes a surprise attack on the University, murdering students and professors in cold blood. As the smell of sulphur and gunpowder become a part of their lives, young pro-independence fighters – the Mukti Bahini – find a haven in the home of Imtiaz’s uncle and aunt, Kamruzzaman and Aisha Chowdhury, and they are swept up in the tide of freedom that drives them all.

On the other side, Fazal Shaukat – a young captain in the Pakistan Army with a family name to live up to – finds that the war he has signed up for isn’t going away anytime soon. There are things bigger than him or his family at stake, even as Pakistan finds itself torn asunder, Jinnah’s dream turning into a nightmare.

Set against the backdrop of a monumental historical event, In the Time of the Others is about what it means to live during violent times. Fierce, searingly honest and revealing, this powerful debut explores how lives intersect during a time of war and upheaval, and how violence changes all that is human

NADEEM ZAMAN

Nadeem Zaman was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and grew up there and in Chicago. He studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Louisville. His fiction has appeared in journals in the United States, Bangladesh, India, and Hong Kong. This is his first novel. ‘You don’t move me with this talk,’ said Judge Mubarak . . . ‘I commend your spirit, but this sort of blind devotion makes you no different than the people you want to fight. My country, your country, my land, your land, what will you do when you have this freedom? Have you thought about it? What plans do you have to keep working for the country you want to free? Are you going to keep blowing up places and making people fearful, putting your own lives in danger? Who will belong here and who will not? Do you think of things like that?’