Fatima Bhutto’s novel aspires to enter the minds of the young, enfranchised or disenfranchised, who headed out to participate in Jihad in the middle east. It follows three characters, Sunny, from Portsmouth, Monty, from Lahore, but an Anglicised Pakistani family, and Layla, a young woman from a poorer district of Lahore who has nevertheless found a way to an education in the same American school as Monty, where they meet and have a fling. A fling which drives Monty to follow Layla to Iraq when she becomes radicalised, where he finds himself paired with Sunny as they trek across the desert on a mission to Nineveh, where they will meet up with Layla. The novel is far stronger in the non-Iraqi sections. The writer’s understanding of Karachi and its social codes is evident. Sunny, with his confused sexuality and thwarted ambitions, is similarly a more interesting personality in his native Portsmouth. Once the novel hits Iraq, it starts to feel more speculative, less convincing. It’s never clear why Sunny and Monty are marching across the desert, nor why they get on so badly, something that seems to constrain the narrative, and the transformation of Sunny from a lost soul to ruthless psychopath feels forced, no matter how much it might be based on actual events. In the end, it feels as though the writer’s understanding of life in Iraq under ISIS is tentative at most and for all the book’s noble intentions there’s a slightly cynical air to the characterisation of these unfortunate figures who have become embroiled in a phenomenon which appears to be way beyond their understanding.
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