APRIL 2026: A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna – RAWALPINDI

1st April 2026

A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna, coming-of-age novel set in Rawalpindi.

Winner of the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2026 – Fiction With A Sense Of Place

As a child, Tara lives in the fictional village of Mazinagar. She is surrounded by her family, including her 2 sisters and her relentlessly cruel and bullying brother, Lateef. She has aspirations beyond her everyday life, she is selected for a better-than-average education and goes on to secure a marriage with Hamad, who will, if everything goes to plan, lift her out of poverty and take her to the city.  At any cost she is determined to rid herself of the “stench of the provinces“, away from the “..houses full of dull and ugly people growing obese with junk food shipped from the city..”. They move to one of the “Twin Cities” – specifically Rawalpindi (the twin is Islamabad), they have two children and thereafter she sets about securing a job as an art teacher in a prestigious school. Their children can attend for free, a perk of her employment. Yet their joint incomes are insufficient for her and she embarks on a ‘referral programme’. Basically, she chooses the life of an escort.

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It is clear the author wants to bring the plight of women to the fore in this novel, written in an autofiction / memoir style, as she details the various episodes in Tara’s life and the frustrations she encounters. She battles the constant control exerted by men across Pakistani society. She is a woman who has a tremendous amount of grit and determination and will not let herself be sidelined once she has a plan.

The story is set against the political backdrop of Pakistan around the turn of the 21st Century, the 9/11 atrocity, the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the invasion of Iraq and how world events impinge on Tara’s family. As the couple’s income increases, the family moves to a new development. Tara’s brother – who, until now has been the successful entrepreneur – is agog at the changes in the couple’s circumstances. Tara’s husband just wants a quiet life, whilst she is busy fuelling their newly acquired lifestyle. He is also not very good at keeping jobs and Tara has to intervene to secure his employment but nothing really lasts for him.

Throughout, she is a bitter and angry woman, coloured by her determination to counter the ingrained male culture in Pakistan. All  kudos to her. These character traits can, however, prove a little all-encompassing as she stomps around, critically evaluating life, people and the iniquities around her: At one point a woman is caught lying naked with her boyfriend and she ponders whether “stupid, reckless people like her, driven only by their desires, lived a life of higher emotional intensity than the rest of us“. Her deep-rooted fury can at times feel a little reductive but the thrust of the narrative mitigates this and bowls along to its conclusion

The novel beautifully portrays the vast divide between rural and city dwellers. Another novel that really captures the divide in Pakistan is: This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin.