Uncle Cuckoo

Being born the youngest in a wealthy Pakistani family was bad enough but being the youngest son was even worse.
"Uncle Cuckoo" tells the story of a young man's struggle to assert himself in the wake of his father's brilliant past, his mother's rising reputation as a lawyer and his brother's destructive penchant for drink, women and gambling.
Overshadowed by his older brother and the Muslim belief of the 'first born' being beyond reproach, Cuckoo struggles to find himself and establish his own identity within the family.
Born in 1947, the same year as Partition and the birth of Pakistan, the novel demonstrates Cuckoo's inability to throw off the shackles of his mother's controlling influence, his father's increasing nostalgia and his brother's disregard for anyone but himself. In his confusion, Cuckoo often loses himself in a haze of alcohol, drugs and a series of abortive attempts to lose his virginity.
Told in both first and third person "Uncle Cuckoo" follows the young man through London in the 'swinging '60s' to the more austere but beautiful landscape of his native Pakistan.
It is a tender and often riotous tale of a conscientious but easily led young man torn between the love of his family and the love for an English girl.