The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto

The Runaways Reviews

• 
  W

  Fatima Bhutto's main claim to fame is that she belongs to the famous Bhutto political dynasty,of Pakistan. (She is the niece of Benazir Bhutto).
  
  The Bhutto name has helped launch her writing career but belonging to this dynasty has also meant that she has endured plenty of suffering in her personal life,including the murder of her father,Murtaza Bhutto.
  
  She began her writing career through her memoir about her father,Songs of Blood and Sword.Though one sided,it is still much better than her fiction books,which I have struggled to read.
  
  At over 400 pages,this book is long,it's way too long. On top of that,the writing is very mediocre. It did remind me of Kamila Shamsie,frequently using Urdu words,long-winded,flowery sentences describing life in Karachi,very slow pacing,and even the theme is similar to Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire.
  
  The book follows the journey of three young people,as they become radicalized. Two are from Karachi,and one is from England. I skimmed,I tried to stick with,but I couldn't. This book would just take too long,I have already read Home Fire and it's much better. And I'm simply not enamoured of Fatima Bhutto's writing style,or her worldview.
• 
  Ranjit Powar

  Fatima Bhutto-it’s a famous name, and also a name marked with sanguine sagas in South Asian history. “In a way, violence is always described in stark black and white terms these days and I wanted to think about it in a different way. How much pain do you have to be in to go to war against the world? What does it mean to feel wounded by the world, to be humiliated and isolated? I am haunted by the violence I’ve experienced. You have to expose violence to light, to air, it’s the only way you can rob it of its power,” says Bhutto. This novel reflects a cathartic expression of the violence in her personal life experiences.
  The story traces the suppressed and directionless lives of three youngsters from different social milieus, all in search of self worth and validation. Sunny, an Indian Muslim expat in Portsmouth, is bullied and belittled by the whites and his own kind; he is ashamed of the pathetic efforts his father makes to be accepted into the white society. His cousin Oz returns from Syria to show him a way out of this mist of pain, loneliness and confusion to glory and heroism through ‘jehad’.
  Monty, who, through being the son of an elitist family of Karachi has the swankiest cars and every other affordable luxury, has a nagging sense of inadequacy due to a pervasive, unidentified fear. He is smitten by Anita Rose, who draws him for her fearlessness and brash confidence in spite of her being on the opposite side of the spectrum through coming from a minority Christian family living in the faceless labyrinth of a slum of the same shiny city.
  It is paradoxical how Sunny and Anita, growing up in bigoted scenarios of suppressive and belittling social, religious and domestic violence, choose to become part of radical fundamentalism and embrace greater violence to find an elusive sense of identity, power and restitution in a world of rejection.
  The lives of these three frustrated youngsters are destined to cross paths in the dreaded wasteland of Mosul, where a bloody orgy of violence pushes them down a dark path of no return- this path, which was to lead them to the promised paradise.
  The author attempts to portray the religious brainwashing and subsequent recruitment of vulnerable youngsters into the so-called religious war against the west, and the irony that it has, in fact, little to do with religion and much to do with distorted mind frames and power games. In spite of the racy subject, the narrative is listless and devoid of any thrill, surprises or excitement. Characters are somewhat sketchy, and come across as unfinished portraits that fail to evoke much empathy. There are infrequent oases of literary redemption in the book through some well scripted paragraphs and phrases, but the rest of the road is a trudge.
  
• 
  Salman Tariq

  When a writer doesn't sit among common people, what is she/he to write about the uncommon observations?
  
  Because of the celebrity status of the writer of this book(due to political background), she has failed to pen down any uncommon observations of common.
  
  She is a method-writer, her novel is well crafted with touches of fine editing and ending; however, the story is weak especially the war seems like a Twitter war. The jihadis depictions are the same as they are shown in Hollywood, so unreal.
  
  I liked the character of Lyla but it's incomplete and paradoxical as if the idea of the female protagonist is hired from Bano Qudsia novel, raja Gidh. Nothing exciting about other characters either .
  
  Another writing piece that might soothe Western audiences.
• 
  Katie Lumsden

  This is a well-written and compelling novel, with fantastic characterisation. It's very hard-hitting and therefore quite difficult to read at times, but is certainly a powerful book.
• 
  Kirsty

  Fatima Bhutto's latest novel, The Runaways, comes with the tagline: 'How far would you run to escape your life?'  The question is a pertinent one given its subject matter.  The novel follows three young adults from vastly different backgrounds who, for various reasons, decide to run away from their homes and join Islamic State.  Despite this bleak plot line, Mohammed Hanif has called the novel 'big-hearted, [and] beautiful', and Elif Shafak believes it to be 'tender, powerful and richly embroidered'.
  
  In The Runaways, Bhutto follows Anita, Monty, and Sunny.  Anita has grown up in dire poverty in Karachi's biggest slum, and only after forming a friendship with her elderly neighbour does she realise that her future holds hope, and a way out of poverty.  Monty, also from Karachi, is from an incredibly wealthy family; his father owns 'half of the city', and expects a great deal from his son.  When  'beautiful and rebellious girl joins his school', Monty is forced to make some difficult decisions about his own future.  Sunny's father moved from India to Portsmouth in order to create a better life for his child.  Despite his father's best efforts, Sunny feels as though he straddles two cultures, and does not really fit in.  When he reconnects with his 'charismatic' cousin, he too takes a different path to the one which his father had hoped.
  
  From the outset, the scenery and settings are vivid and described in all their beauty and horror. The Runaways is highly atmospheric in consequence,  Bhutto writes, for instance: 'On Netty Jetty, overlooking the mangroves... kites swarm the sky like a thick cover of clouds, waiting for lovers to throw chunks of meat to them - or if the lovers cannot afford the bloody parcels sold on the bridge, then small doughy balls of bread.'  Of Karachi, Bhutto writes: 'Under the cover of darkness, before the floodlights bleed into dawn, a mynah bird, with its yellow bandit-beak and orange eyes cut through its coarse black plumage, sings'.  At this point, which comes at the very beginning of The Runaways, Anita has made her way to the airport.  The only things which she has in her possession are a passport, a red notebook, and a 'small bag with a necessary change of clothing and some make-up.'  She yearns to leave Karachi behind forever, and feels as though she is making a real break for freedom.
  
  Bhutto makes use of the third person perspective throughout, which allows her to follow each character effectively.  I liked the way in which their very different journeys to radical Islam were set out and spoken about.  Bhutto sets out that each of her protagonists is going through a crisis of a sort: Sunny is confused about his sexuality; Monty is ashamed by the way in which his wealthy parents act around other people; and Anita's feels as though she is worth more than the restricted and restrictive life she lives in a tiny house with her mother and hustler of a brother.  Each of Bhutto's protagonists is complex and humanised.  There is a build up of their backstories, as well as the influences in their present-day lives which lead them to travel to an Islamic State stronghold in Iraq.  The action, in which the three characters meet, takes place between Mosul and Nineveh.
  
  The contemporaneous nature of the novel, which spans the period between 2014 and 2017, creates a kind of urgency.  Its themes and concerns are so relevant to us.  Bhutto explores, in a measured and unbiased manner, what could drive such young, impressionable people to join such a feared, and frankly terrifying, terrorist organisation.  I found her considered writing absorbing, and admired the way in which she gave context and understanding to the paths which her characters take.  The Runaways offers a great deal of food for thought, and is timely and relevant.
• 
  Marwa Shafique

  Despite it having a promising start, this was such a disappointing read. I don't know why I inflict so much pain upon myself. It was agonising.
• 
  Beth Bonini

  What kind of person wants to be a jihadi? Who joins the Islamic State? Does membership of such an organisation signal villainy of the most anarchic kind, or is it possible that something far more banal is at work?
  
  “Male, 26, single, quite well-educated but not an expert on the Quran - this is the profile of an average fighter joining ISIS.” (The Independent, 22 April 2016)
  
  When entry documents were leaked from ISIS, (as described in the above article by Lizzie Dearden), they revealed that Western recruits were much more likely to be young, to have a fairly high level of education - and interestingly enough, to have only a very ‘basic’ knowledge of the Quran and Sharia law.
  
  The Runaways is a story about three Muslim teenagers who become jihadis, and I cannot help but think that Fatima Bhutto has done a brave thing in tackling this timely but difficult subject. She has aimed for the more subtle context and understanding, as opposed to outright condoning or condemning their actions, and it’s a fine line to walk. She dares to humanise her characters, and she also dares to suggest that each of them became jihadi ‘warriors’ by a series of accidents. Sunny, Monty and Layla come from different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, but what they all have in common is a sense of isolation. None of them is particularly religious, but they are all culturally Muslim and they are all looking for more ‘meaning’ in their lives. Like most teenagers, they are insecure in who they are - but they want to be something, or at least belong to something, important.
  
  The novel jumps from Sunny in Portsmouth, England, to Monty and Layla in Karachi, Pakistan. Eventually the stories of all three characters will be woven together like a braid, and their commitment to varying ideals (and their responses to violence) will come to a head in Ninevah/Mosul. The novel is fast-paced, and increasingly tense as the story develops and moves location to Syria and Iraq. In some ways, Sunny is both the least and the most sympathetic character. His character is the most richly developed, and I think that Bhutto draws a far clearer line between Sunny’s internal conflicts and his attraction to IS.
  
  I wouldn’t suggest that this novel will be an enduring work of art, but it does tackle a topical and difficult subject matter - and I felt that Bhutto writes with both understanding and authority.
  
  Thanks so much to Viking Books and Penguin UK for the gift of this book.
• 
  Amena

  I was lucky enough to finish this book in time for the book tour today. It was unplanned but I do feel quite pleased with myself as I hardly ever review for a tour🙊 If you want to know further details about the plot, check out @keeperofpages as she did a great synopsis yesterday. In essence, this is about three people who go to fight in the war in Syria. Verdict? I bloody LOVED it. As a British Muslim, I felt nervous about reading a book not only by a Muslim author but also with content that I know has such divided opinion. However, Bhutto provides so much perspective on the topic of 'radicalisation' - I really don't like the word but it's the one most commonly used in this field and we all know what it means. We are presented with individuals who differ from each other and lead very different lives. They have their own perspectives and personal challenges to deal with. Their reasons for going to war are very much individual. There is a strong sense of loss, of not knowing who they are and where they belong. The book takes you to Pakistan, the UK and Iraq. *
  
  Given the current political climate, never has a book been so important. To open our eyes and let us see things from the other side of the fence. We as a society are so quick to judge and make comments about those who believe they are going to fight for a worthy cause, little do we know about their background or circumstances. Bhutto does a marvellous job in this book of attempting to make the reader understand how claustrophobic young people can feel and expand our knowledge on this relevant and important area. The plot did lull a bit for me when both boys are in the desert but I can't take away the impact it had. She has a new fan in me and I cannot wait to read more of her work.
  Rating: 5🌟
• 
  Andy Weston

  As to be expected with such subject matter, the reading here isn’t often easy, but handled with great skill by the author, making it a very powerful and informative read. By giving her characters economic, social and political difficulties, Bhutto reinforces the point that radicalism has little to do with religion.
  16 year old AnitaRose, aspires to a life in Karachi’s most affluent neighborhood despite her origins as a servant’s daughter born and raised in the slums. 17 year old Monty, the son of an eminent businessman , seeks purpose after a privileged upbringing. Sunny, also 17 though quiet and disillusioned, is first-generation British from Indian parents, restless by the expectations that his father places on him.
  Bhutto delves into the personalties of the youngsters and the result is an opportune read, seeking to understand the root causes that push youngsters into joining terrorist organisations, as a way out of their economic and social deprivation and society’s failure to accept them.
• 
  Nabila

  3.8*
  Bhutto is most definitely a very emotive writer. Her ability to create a deep understanding of the characters, and empathy towards them was very impressive, albeit difficult at times. This book left me feeling sad and yearning for a better ending, particularly for confused and misunderstood Sunny.
  
  I can see what she was trying to achieve, but I think it could have been executed a bit better. The emphasis on the hypocrisies of extremism were pointed out very well. However, I wish there was a counter with religion and it's condemnation of extremism through a character. Though I felt for and loved Sunny's father, he was divorced from Islam. The most we encountered was the Imam at the Mosque that Sunny couldn't connect with, Monty's mother as a practicing Muslim woman - but her encouragement of Monty fleeing in the end didn't provide a much needed countering perspective. Aloush showed a different side to appreciating God, but it was not within the 'common' realms of religion.
  
  Though the subtext of the divorce of religion and extremism is clear, I just worry that through the eyes of a Western audience, this book could be construed to justify Islamic stereotypes.
  
  The book however, did create an immigrant perspective that was moving. Bhutto also created much suspense, and flitted from different characters, times and spaces effortlessly. Overall I would recommend this read to others because of the obvious great care that Bhutto puts into constructing this book.
• 
  Eleanor

  Bhutto’s debut second novel (her first was
  The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, plus a memoir) deals with Islamist radicalization through three characters: Monty, a rich boy from Karachi; Anita Rose, the lowly daughter of a masseuse; and Sunny, a disenfranchised, closeted gay boy from Portsmouth. Of these three, Sunny is the most convincingly and tragically drawn: Bhutto, despite being a child of privilege herself, seems able to fully inhabit and understand the mind of a second-generation teenager living a dead-end life in twenty-first century Britain, neither fully accepted by his white peers nor able to connect fully with other BBCDs (British-Born Confused Desis). She’s excellent on the role of social media in radicalization, the way it offers an illusory form of validation. Monty’s love story and Anita’s trajectory are both less convincing, but the way all three characters come together is breathtaking.
• 
  Di

  A novel about the motivations of three young people who leave their homes to join extremist Islamist forces. Anita lives in the slums of Karachi. She is influenced by the books she reads on the shelves of her elderly neighbour and motivated by the need to redeem her honour after her brother engages her in some weird videos.
  
  Monty, a rich kid in Karachi, is obsessed with Layla, a rebellious girl at his school. After she abandons him, he searches for her and then follows her.
  
  Sunny lives in England and grapples with his identity and his sexuality. He is between two worlds, alienated and unable to assimilate as his Indian father wishes, obsessed with his cousin Oz, newly returned from Syria.
  
  The boys are thrust together and wander in the desert seemingly forever before the three finally converge at jihadi training camp in Mosul.
  
  It had the makings of a fascinating read but around the middle, for me, it lost the plot and dragged on and on interminably. Disappointing.
• 
  Prachi Pati

  After a spree of reading good books, I came across a book that looked fascinating and whose description intrigued me, but oh my goodness, the book was so bleak. The pace of the story seemed to drag on in the Monty-Sunny sections in the desert and I didn't get the message the author was trying to make. I couldn't relate to any of the characters or care for any of them. I just wish I had read a better book on this subject, rather than this one.
• 
  Asim Bakhshi

  It must be read for how not to disintegrate your well-crafted character sketches till you reach the second half and end up converting all your hard work into a missed opportunity. She didn't have an original story to tell; all she had were three alienated lives which couldn't unfortunately converge in a hazy fourth milieu. I wish she had concieved it as a plotless, character study sort of novel.
• 
  Lark Benobi

  The story was compelling, and the characters are given meaningful challenges. I had difficulty with the language of the novel, however. It frequently felt to me that Bhutto wrote the same thing twice in a row, evidence of a bit of throat-clearing in earlier drafts that still remain here, where a stronger edit would have made for a stronger novel.
• 
  Tawallah

  Who is this book targeted towards? Not me, that’s for certain. Not even sure it’s for millennials or even East Indians? Is it for for a certain niche Westernized palette?
  
  In this flat narrative with barely realised characters we follow three teenage living in 2019. I think they are meant to represent different strata of society who all are lost and disillusioned. There is Sunny, first generation English immigrant of Pakistani descent. He is disconnected from Pakistan and his father‘s desires. He struggles with purpose and his sexuality. Then there is privileged Monty who lives in a dysfunctional household who yearns for more. And then there is Anita Rose who lives in the slums wishing to be seen and befriended by those who live in Clifton, the wealthy neighborhood where her mother works.
  
  This book does capture the angst, yearning for recognition and to be seen by teenagers. It also captures well the cruelty and mob mentality and how easily they fall victim to adults who are seeking their own glory. This story should have been hard hitting and cause the reader to reflect on this lost youth. Unfortunately, it flips from point of view to point of view with no true depth. It just spits out rhetoric you could find in the media already. So I’m back to my original question - Who is this book for?
• 
  2TReads

  3.5 to 4 stars
  
  Bhutto has created a story that tackles the pressure of familial expectations when it comes to education, career paths, existing in poverty, dealing with classist aggression and apathy, begging, indignity, and how all of these play an integral role in molding the characteristics and expressions of those exposed to them.
  
  Time is taken to build each protagonist's unique yet familiar relationship with their parents and their particular set of factors : how they were socialized, what they were exposed to, their individual self-actualization, and how all of these affected the path they ended up walking.
  
  I appreciate multi-immigrant stories that are grounded in the society, values, and religious leanings that mold the atmosphere of setting. The Runaways depicts three young people of distinct personalities, circumstances, experiences, and dreams; and how all this coalesced into the climax of our story.
  
  Bhutto really crafts the environment that shape the minds of our three young adults, being quite direct with tone regarding how each was driven to a life of extremism: feeling underappreciated and useless, not living up to what is expected, the lack of validation from social media, wanting to be a part of a movement that recognizes their worth and that would garner them recognition for their contributions, wanting to be more than what society expects, and following where love leads.
  
  As we are taken through each protagonist's immediate environmental influences, we see the crucible that eventually led Anita Rose, Sunny, Monty, and Layla to radicalization. Examining the familial dynamics really shines a light on the fact that it is those closest to us, who we love the most that will hurt us, take advantage, abandon, and misuse us. For each of our protagonists, we see clearly how the path they took was carved before their feet.
• 
  Sarah-Hope

  Three different young adults, by three very different paths, become jihadis in Iraq. Fatima Bhutto presents their stories in a nonlinear chronology, letting readers come to see the full picture over time.
  
  I don't know enough about violent fundamentalism to know if this book rings true on that level. I requested a review copy of this title because Fatima's Shadow of the Crescent Moon was one of my absolute favorite reads in 2013. I don't think The Runaways is quite as successful as that novel, but it's also a longer, more substantial work.
  
  The Runaways is bleak, but also leaves some small room for hope. This isn't an easy read, but it will give you lots to think about. The characters' motivations are uneven. Sunny, a young man of Pakistani descent, who is at war with himself over his homosexuality, is the most fully depicted. Monty, a wealthy Pakistani is motivated by a fierce, adolescent love. The most interesting, complex character is the young woman—but she's the one Bhutto tells us least about, forcing readers to fill in the gaps with their own imaginings.
  
  Content warning: there is one scene that extends over several pages involving the abuse of dogs. I skipped ahead as soon as I reached that spot because this isn't a topic I'm willing to read about. If you feel like I do, keep an eye out and be ready to jump forward when you reach this point.
  
  I received an electronic ARC of this title from the publisher via EdelweissPlus. The opinions are my own.
• 
  Jessica Haider

  3.5 stars
  
  The Runaways' narrative switches between the 3 main characters. Anita lives in the slums of Karachi, Pakistan with no hope to get ahead until her neighbor introduces her to his book collection. Monty lives on the other side of Karachi and is very well off and his father has high hopes for him. Things start to shift when he falls for a girl at school. Meanwhile, Sunny was born and raised in Portsmouth, UK but feels like he doesn't fit in anywhere. His father migrated to the UK from India and wants the best for his son. Sunny is very confused about his own identity.
  
  The three stories eventually wind together in a story about lost souls trying to find their own identity in the extremes of religion.
  
  This book had some similar themes to
  Home Fire, which I really enjoyed. In both books we see young muslims tempted to the more extreme corners of their religion. We see people questioning the decisions they've made. I recommend this to anyone looking for a fictional #ownvoices perspective of Muslim youth wandering into the mire.
  
  Thank you to the publisher for the review copy of this book!
• 
  Emily Cowan

  Utterly profound. Couldn't put it down. Couldn't stop thinking about it.
• 
  Asif Nawaz

  This review originally appeared in Youlin Magazine. (
  https://www.youlinmagazine.com/story/...)
  
  Despite finding her debut novel disappointing, I picked up Fatima Bhutto’s second novel, “The Runaways” after her session at the Lahore Literature Festival, as I was drawn towards the themes she has discussed in the book. The novel deals with various contemporary subjects such as radicalisation, immigration, identity crisis, power dynamics and class barriers; observed keenly through the eyes of its sensitive characters. The characters, brimming with confusion, angst, indignity and personal failings, lie at the crux of the story and for the most part, this is a gripping book, but it falters in the second half - sometimes a bit too drastically.
  
  The novel follows the stories of three characters, each grappling with overwhelming emotions due to different reasons. There’s Sunny Jamil, a “BBCD” (British Born Confused Desi), son of an Indian immigrant to Portsmouth, who is battling an identity crisis while trying to belong to the United Kingdom. Trying to come to terms with his sexuality, and loathing his father, his life is compounded when his cousin “Oz” (Osman) returns from Jihad. Thousands of miles away, there’s Monty (Mustafa), son of one of the wealthiest men in Karachi; surrounded by money, opulence and girls, Monty’s life takes a flip-turn when he falls for the enigmatic new girl in his school, Layla. In the same city, existing in an altogether different zone is the slum-child Anita Rose, a Christian whose family life has always been tough. Anita takes refuge in the words and books of her elderly communist neighbour, inspired by the likes of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib.
  
  “How far will you run to escape your life?” the novel asks. For these characters, the answer is the desert of a war-torn Iraq. For their separate reasons, the characters end up in the war zone, where they side with ISIS (though the book never names the organization) and their lives intersect; though not always pleasantly. The book is divided into four parts, tracing the characters’ evolution during the period of 2014-2017. The first part is the strongest, when the characters come alive, and their personas and internal conflicts are sketched out in detail. This is where the readers can relate to the characters, and feel their suffering. As things take a more practical turn, the charm of the writing somewhat gets lost.
  
  While Bhutto’s writing is effective and her prose beautiful, the plot doesn’t always complement the former and important connections in the plot turn out to be flimsy. The trajectories in the characters’ arcs, such as Anita Rose’s are unconvincing. Anita Rose ends up being the weakest link in the chain and her evolution is far too dramatic to digest. The novel has been written in the third person format, with different chapters relegated to different characters. A respite is taken from this format in the case of Anita Rose, in order to add some thrill to the story. However, the liberties taken with fiction get a tad too much at times. Similar to Mohsin Hamid’s treatment of the difficult topic of immigration in his book, Exit West, Bhutto's portrayal of ISIS feels too casual at times, as if half-heartedly researched.
  
  But these loopholes are somewhat compensated for by Fatima’s rich writing when it comes to cities and cultures. Karachi, Portsmouth and London - all have been written about with an observant eye, and you can actually experience their sights and sounds as you read. To Karachi specifically, from the sounds of the mynah birds to the puddles of Macchar Colony, the novel does justice. As already mentioned, Bhutto’s strength lies in her attention to detail, characters and places, but not the plot.
  
  Nevertheless, The Runaways is an important book which drew rave reviews internationally. It may be more important for Western audiences, who seldom realize the tribulations citizens of the third world encounter on a daily basis, and what draws many individuals towards violence and wars. The story may not remain with you long after you’re done with the novel, partially due to an inconclusive climax, but the characters might. That, in itself, is a sign of success.
• 
  Zainub Reads

  The protagonists of this story are three young, lost and directionless people (Sunny, Monty and Anita Rose) who become radicalized and morph into extremists looking for a sense of self worth and external validation.
  
  Validation from the person they love, from a society that degrades them, and from the world in general.
  
  The plot though not very unique is still powerful and intriguing.
  However, I found the narrative a bit dull except for occasional flashes of brilliance.
  
  I also felt the characters were not very well sketched out given the subject matter and the story arc did not feel logical, except for Sunny, his confusion, conflicting thoughts and journey to finally feeling a semblance of “power” were very well presented.
  
  It was quite paradoxical how some of the characters themselves coming from suppressed and suffocating environments chose to become a part of a fundamentalist radical group seeking a sense of belonging.
  
  My main qualm with the book was that the narrative presented had many stereotypical muslim hypocrites but did not feature a single Muslim character that was sincere to their beliefs while being spiritual and peace loving.
  
  Also, the representation of the minority community of Pakistan got me excited but that story line ended without really exploring the potential there.
  
  “No two persons ever read the same book.”
  So you can still read and enjoy this book
  I didn’t and that’s my opinion.
  
  P.S. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie deals with similar themes and was frankly a better book for me.
  
  Read further for what I felt were basically plot holes but..
  
  *Spoiler alert*
  
  Anita had been fed an intellectually rich diet of esteemed writers that she loved by a communist gentleman that she revered and she still chooses the path to extremism?
  
  Plus her magical transformation from a Christian to a Muslim who can speak fluent Arabic is quite hard to digest given that it’s hardly given any line-space in the book.
  
  Who leads her to Islam and how?
  Why doesn’t she go to a Church seeking peace or confide in her mother?
  
  She doesn’t bother to cover her face given her history but it still takes eons after her rising popularity for her “secret” to be uncovered?
  
  Monty is assigned a “very important” mission that is basically traveling through a desert on foot without any training with Sunny, who’s guarantor has bailed and become quite famous but nobody is really bothered.
  The depiction of the fundo group felt very hollywood-ish and wired for failure by self-sabotage, like would they really recruit people with no background checks?
  
  The whole important task was just taking breaks and charging their phones while looking up social media all along.
  Probably the intelligence agencies were watching and waiting for the self-sabotaging to play out.
• 
  Sajith Kumar

  Apart from the religious divide that separated the newly born states of India and Pakistan in 1947, a distinct contrast in the running of both countries was seen right from the beginning. Even though Pakistan professed its adoption of democracy, what they had in effect was a form of feudal aristocracy polished for popular consumption and easy digestibility for the liberals. A few super-rich families controlled the destiny of the country, with their strangulating hold on the all-powerful army and bureaucracy. The Bhuttos were one such family that once controlled almost half the cultivable land of the southern province of Sindh. Fatima Bhutto is the daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, niece of Benazir Bhutto and granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She is an easily recognizable Pakistani writer and her memoir titled ‘Songs of Blood and Sword’ was reviewed earlier here. In this book, which is a novel, Bhutto presents a tragic sequence of events that drew three impressionable Muslim youths into jihad sponsored by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
  
  Bhutto’s selection of the cast is admirably representative. All the three – two boys and a girl – have lost their roots in the society they live and manage to push a forlorn existence just by doing nothing worthwhile. One is a second-generation Indian Muslim boy living in England, who is enraged by the apathy shown by the British people to the immigrants. His father migrated to England early on and was quite content with having received admission into the society. But the second generation wants assimilation, which is not forthcoming. The other boy is the son of a Pakistani aristocrat who lives in Karachi in an artificial bubble, insulated from the scum of the city by posh homes, elite restaurants and luxury cars. Lack of proper guidance leads the boy to fall for shallow relationships which is taken very seriously by him, thereby becoming a puppet of fate in the larger scheme of things. The third character is a Christian girl in the Karachi slums. Being penniless and belonging to a minority community means hell in Pakistan. After recurring abuse and humiliation by her peers, the girl and her brother assume Muslim names at first and then have to convert to that faith, just in order to obtain the status of a human being that is automatically granted to citizens anywhere in the world. All three discontented youths end up in the lure of Islamic terrorism like moths fluttering into the flame. Bhutto has maintained a very relevant and convincing plot in the novel.
  
  The author’s credentials as a secular intellectual is impeccable, yet she has provided considerable leeway to sympathizers of jihadism. All educated Muslims appear to be nostalgic about the Moorish kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula which Islam had won and conquered in the first century after the religion’s birth. But they were defeated and evicted in the fifteenth century by Christian forces. The fact that not a trace of Moorish culture is seen today in Iberia is mourned even by moderate Muslims. They forget that the Islamic invaders had done exactly the same thing in the lands that fell under their horses’ hoofs. Hints that suggest cultural alienation of youths drive them to radicalism look like apology to jihadism. There are Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish migrants living in Europe who are also subjected to the same treatment, but they don’t queue up to join terrorists. The whites are accused of not being able to understand the migrants and their struggles. This may be true, but then again, they didn’t force the migrants to leave their home country in the first place!
  
  The ISIS terrorists shocked the world through their explicit video clips of beheadings, shootings and burnings alive. They have proved themselves to be inhuman monsters who don’t deserve an iota of mercy or empathy from the civilized world. However, this book portrays them as excitable teenagers who anguish over the low speed of their data connection on their mobile phones in the middle of the desert. All of them are addicts of social media, which again makes them identifiable with the other youth.
  
  The author’s observation that the ‘only way to look at powerful societies is through the people they excluded’ is prescient and original. So is the wry comment that the youths’ life was marked only by its unremarkability. The book contains such nice references readers can carry in their minds. The author also paints a colourful picture of liberated Pakistani women in England and the moral wreck caused by Birmingham grooming gangs in which gangs of Pakistani men and boys sexually abused British women in a systematically organized manner.
  
  Bhutto makes a dig at India when she says that ‘the bacterial disease of trachoma, spread by flies was eradicated in most of the world, even India, but was still knocking around in Turkey’ (p.158). This is mild and pardonable, coming from a person whose grandfather was supposedly willing to eat grass to have a nuclear bomb to match India and to fight it for a thousand years. However, the irony of his judicial murder committed by his own countrymen within a decade of this speech is profound, which displays the insignificance of Pakistan’s politicians when the army is poised against them. This novel is structured in a descriptive style, with the author’s presence felt in every page. This makes the story unfold in a rather forced way as the author never recedes into the background. This plan leaves the plot with too few conversations between characters. A strong argument against this work is the humanization of inhuman terrorists. She paints them in so casual a tone that a comparison is unwittingly made by readers to William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’. It tells the story of a group of children who get trapped in an island by shipwreck. At first, they form a disciplined organisation to arrange efforts to get the attention of passing ships. But as time goes on, hope fades and despair sets in, making their descent into the abyss of barbarism. Reading about the radicalization of two innocent youths as they walk on a mission to cross the Iraqi desert reminds one of Golding’s masterpiece.
  
  The book is recommended.
  
• 
  Barbara

  I received a free copy of The Runaways from Netgalley (my first Netgalley book! Yay!) in return for an honest review.
  
  Fatima Bhutto is no stranger to political killing. As a member of the famous Bhutto clan, she's seen several high profile family members killed by their political opponents. For that reason, I felt it a little odd that she's chosen to focus 'The Runaways' not on political killing but on religious conflict. Her book follows a small group of young people from Pakistan and the UK into the Iraqi desert in search of Jihad. I don't recall if it's ever mentioned that the group they go to is Islamic State, or if it's one of many spin-offs or similar groups, but the theme is clear.
  
  We have Sunny who, whether he acknowledges it himself, or not, is a classic BBCD - British-Born Confused Desi. He lives in Portsmouth, not a classic location for the Asian diaspora, and not a particularly inspiring place to grow up. He's battling his sexuality and his feelings for his older cousin, Oz, who inspires him to go out to the Middle East and 'be a man'. In stark contrast, we have Monty, cossetted son of one of Karachi's richest men, and desperately (and pitifully) in love with a girl called Layla who may well not be quite what she seems. Then there's Anita Rose, a Christian Pakistani girl whose brother will stop at nothing to build his business empire. By a series of somewhat unlikely coincidences, the two men find themselves together, undertaking a trek through the Iraqi desert for a terrorist group.
  
  The first half of the book is stronger than the second. Once everybody got to Iraq, I felt things lost direction a bit. I've read a LOT of books about Islamic State and Syria and the experience of the two men seemed a bit lame at times. Why would the group have sent two young greenhorns into the desert for no apparently important purpose to walk through the desert? Why would Sonny have spent so much time on his mobile phone whilst they travelled? And why did Monty just not get the hint from Layla?
  
  The biggest confusion for me was around Anita Rose. I can't say too much without giving away the twist (that you'll probably have spotted pretty early in the book) but her motivations made no sense to me at all. Why would what happens to her in Dubai, cause her to change her direction so abruptly? I could have understood her hating the perpetrators and pulling off a 'get thee to a monastery' stunt, but what happened made no sense to me. Please feel free to message me if you think I missed something. I also didn't feel too clear about the influence of her elderly communist neighbour.
  
  The ending, when we've eventually dragged ourselves through the desert to get there, is rather abrupt and asks more questions than it answers.
  
  Stylistically, I liked the book a lot but I found the plot rather weak. I didn't have a problem with the Urdu terms, but I could have done without whole sentences in Arabic. I would still want to read Fatima Bhutto again and have dusted off my copy of her autobiography about the deaths in her family and look forward to reading that.
• 
  Ana

  The Runaways tells the story of 3 young people who escape their families and become radicalised. It takes place over a few (2-3) years, and it is divided into different periods over those three years, occasionally going back and showing some of the context that explains the "present". It starts with a description of each of the main characters and their relationships with their families, and the narrative moves back and forth from there.
  
  Although it's written in third person, the way the story is told, focusing on one character at a time, allows us to peak into the thoughts and motivations from the three main characters.
  Overall, I thought it was an interesting read, and an exercise into how vulnerable people can be exploited (and, in this case, radicalised).
  
  Ultimately, this book tells us the stories of three people who feel disconnected, lonlely, and unseen, and who feel like nobody would understand them, so they choose to remain silent and withdraw from their families instead. Slowly, the loneliness becomes pain, and I just feel like if they had been able to communicate better (with their families, with their friends, with each other...) a lot of pain could have been spared. Oh, but, come to think of it, maybe then there would be no story...
  
  What I liked: The way it's written, showing us the perspective from each character and why they behave the way they do. I also liked how we not only learn about their characters and their relationships with their families, but we also peek into the stories of their families and learn about the bigger context.
  
  What I didn't like: I wish Bhutto had given Anita a more prominent role, so that we didn't have to fill the holes into her story. I felt the trip through the desert (trying to avoid spoilers) was too long, and I wish some of that space had been used to develop the female character further.
• 
  Anneke

  I am so sorry to give this book just one star, especially as I enjoyed Songs of Blood and Sword very much. But this is just a very thin story with very sketchy characters, whose developments are not explained. Besides, the story is full of unlikely actions. Walking 150 kilometres in the desert, with internet connection (nearly) everywhere? Being able to charge your phone in desolate petrol stations? Being able to post on social media and let everyone know you are in Iraq? Receive job ads in case you come back to the UK - would no one think of the likelihood being imprisoned and interrogated? Part 2 takes way too long and is boring, here an editor should have intervened for the sake of readability. It is completely unclear and therefore unsatisfactory how the radicalisation with the main characters took place. Do not waste your time on this and hopefully Fatima Bhutto writes a better book next time