Under the Tamarind Tree
-
-
4.5 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
A compellingly heartbreaking debut novel about the echoes of Partition and four friends whose dark secrets lead to a life-changing night that comes back to haunt them decades later.
One night. Four friends. Countless secrets.
1964. Karachi, Pakistan. Rozeena is running out of time. She'll lose her home—her parents' safe haven since fleeing India and the terrors of Partition—if her medical career doesn't take off soon. But success may come with an unexpected price. Meanwhile the interwoven lives of her childhood best friends—Haaris, Aalya, and Zohair—seem to be unraveling with each passing day. The once small and inconsequential differences between their families' social standing now threaten to divide them. Then one fateful night someone ends up dead and the life they once took for granted shatters.
2019. Rozeena receives a call from a voice she never thought she’d hear again. What begins as an ask to look after a friend’s teenaged granddaughter struggling with her own demons grows into an unconventional friendship—one that unearths buried secrets and just might ruin everything Rozeena has worked so hard to protect.
Captivating and atmospheric, Under the Tamarind Tree shows us the high-stakes ripple effects of generational trauma, and the lengths people will go to protect the ones they love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Alam's shaky debut, four friends must face the devastating repercussions of a life-changing event in post-Partition Karachi, Pakistan. In the present day, Rozeena, a retired pediatrician, reluctantly agrees to allow the granddaughter of Haaris, a man she used to be in love with and has not seen for decades, to be her gardener. Her history with Haaris is revealed in a secondary timeline, in the mid-1960s, when Rozeena, Haaris, and their friends Aalya and Zohair attend Haaris's welcome home ball upon his return from studying in Liverpool. Aalya, secretly from a family of servants who was bequeathed their employer's home in a wealthy neighborhood, has feelings for Zohair, who unknowingly played a role in Rozeena's brother's death during the violence of Partition when India's independence split the country in two. Aalya, though, knows she needs to find a wealthier husband to keep her family's secret safe. A divorced stranger takes liberties with Aalya at the ball, setting off a series of shocking events that change the friends' lives forever. Rozeena, meanwhile, strives to establish her pediatric practice and keep her widowed mother from selling their dilapidated family home. The story expends too much energy on the welcome home ball, leaving little room for character development outside of that night's events. This underperforms.
