A Case of Exploding Mangoes
SynopsisPlot
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's suspicious death, which the government calls a suicide.Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, dictator of Pakistani. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators, including his cologne-bathed roommate, a hash-smoking American lieutenant, and a mango-besotted crow, Ali sets his elaborate plan in motion. There's only one problem: the line of would-be Zia assassins is longer than he could have possibly known.
Story
About this book
Ali Shigri serves as a pilot in Pakistan's Air Force, where he is Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron. His father, a colonel under General Zia ul-Haq, has died in circumstances the state calls suicide. Ali wants an explanation, and he sets his sights on the dictator himself. Those he draws in include his cologne-drenched roommate, an American lieutenant fond of hash, and a crow fixated on mangoes.
Mohammed Hanif's debut novel is set in the late 1980s, with American money moving through Pakistan, Soviet troops next door in Afghanistan, and Zia's government watching its own officers closely. The plot circles a real event: the plane crash of 1988 that killed Zia. Ali's search draws him into a knot of coincidences, competing interests, and cash that changes hands quietly.
The tone stays darkly comic. Ali gradually learns that the queue of people who want Zia gone is longer than he imagined, which turns his careful plan into one thread among many. Chapters also follow the general himself, uneasy about plots and about the loyalty of the men nearest to him. Love, betrayal, family duty, and the ordinary machinery of a tyranny run through the book.
