The Wish Maker
First edition cover (US Hardback)
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| Author | Ali Sethi |
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| Language | English |
| Genre | |
| Publisher |
Riverhead Books (USA) Penguin Books (India) Hamish Hamilton (UK) |
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Publication date
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June 11, 2009 |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN | |
The Wish Maker is the first novel by Pakistani author Ali Sethi. Published in 2009 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Zaki Shirazi, a young boy from United States who returned to Lahore, Pakistan after finishing his studies to celebrate the wedding of his childhood friend Samar Api and observe a completely new Pakistan. The story is set against the backdrop of tumultuous events, from the Zia-ul-Haq reign to Zulfiqar Bhutto's execution and Benazir Bhutto elections, it also dictates United States help to Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
The Wish Maker has been often compared with Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, due to its similar tone to Hosseini's tale which depicts the pre-revolutionary Afghanistan with warmth and humour despite the tense political undercurrent. Sethi has commented that he considered the name of the book, The Wish Maker, "so important" because it describes "to what he was trying to say". The political themes, social concerns, family relationships and 90s' era of Lahore is prominent throughout the novel.
Zaki Shirazi has arrived back in Lahore, Pakistan, to celebrate the wedding of his childhood friend and elder cousin Samar Api to her long sought-after 'Amitabh' - a stand-in for the Bollywood star she always dreamed of marrying. Amidst the flurry of preparations in the house in which he grew up, Zaki can't help but revisit the past - his childhood as a fatherless boy growing up in a household of outspoken women and his and Samar's intertwined journeys from youth to adulthood. Raised to consider themselves 'part of the same litter', Zaki and Samar watched American television together, memorized dialogues from Bollywood movies and attended dangerous protests with Zaki's campaigning, political journalist mother. But as Zaki becomes drawn into Samar's secret life of romantic schemes and lends her his support in trying to orchestrate the future, they both find themselves suffering the consequences.
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