Passion for Pakistan
Thriller feels like an intriguing character study on spirituality, modern injustices by the Taliban
As the setting for a thriller, Pakistan is bursting with potential. There are spectacular mountains and hidden caves, fabulous riches and grim poverty, religious zeal and political corruption, stunning art and sensual poetry, clashes between genders and generations, and a thriving trade in illegal artifacts. Toronto author Nazneen Sheikh ( Moon Over Marrakech, Tea and Pomegranates), who spent her early years in Pakistan, crams all of that into her new novel, The Place of Shining Light.
The story centres on the theft of an ancient statue of Buddha and its effects on the lives of three Muslim men. Adeel is the highly trained ex-army officer hired to steal the 1.2-metre-high statue from a cave in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan valley and smuggle it into Pakistan. Ghalib is the avaricious art collector eager to acquire it and Khalid is the wealthy antiquities dealer acting as go-between.
Trouble is, Adeel no sooner sets eyes on the sculpture than he experiences a profound spiritual transformation — “it had filled him with tranquility, made him feel as if he’d been touched by an infinite universe that was beyond even the scope of his imagination” — and he decides to steal the Buddha for himself. He flees, picking up a female accomplice/love interest along the way. The ensuing pursuit reveals the characters of the three men, the natures of their greed and the powers of redemption the mysterious statue may hold.
The Place of Shining Light is no South Asian version of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Despite its billing, the novel is not really a thriller. It’s a collection of intriguing character studies, a commentary on modernday Pakistan with references to the reallife 2001destruction of giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan and the shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, and blunt criticisms of social injustices wrought by Taliban thugs “mired in medieval confusion.”
As a result, the novel is not so much thrilling as stirring and thought-provoking.
And despite the violence of death — and often of life — in Pakistan, Sheikh, thricemarried and known for her beguiling flamboyance, shows she still believes in love and a future glimmering with hope. Journalist Marcia Kaye (marciakaye.com) has travelled extensively throughout Pakistan.