The winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature follows his debut┬аHome Boy┬аwithтАЬan unforgettable romp across love, life, and everything elseтАЭ (Akhil Sharma, author of Family Life).
Abdullah, bachelor and scion of a once prominent family, awakes on the morning of his seventieth birthday and considers launching himself over the balcony. Having spent years attempting to compile a тАЬmythopoetic legacyтАЭ of his beloved Karachi, the cosmopolitan heart of Pakistan, Abdullah has lost his zeal. A surprise invitation for a night out from his old friend Felix Pinto snaps Abdullah out of his funk and saddles him with a wardтАФPintoтАЩs adolescent grandson Bosco. As Abdullah plays mentor to Bosco, he also attracts the romantic attentions of Jugnu, an enigmatic siren with links to the mob. All the while AbdullahтАЩs brothersтАЩ plot to evict him from the family estate. Now he must to try to save his homeтАФor face losing his last connection to his familial past.┬а
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Anarchic, erudite, and rollicking, with a septuagenarian protagonist like no other,┬аThe Selected Works of Abdullah the Cossack┬аis a joyride of a story set against a kaleidoscopic portrait of one of the worldтАЩs most vibrant cities.┬а┬а┬а
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тАЬH.M. NaqviтАЩs remarkable Cossack is the Pakistani Falstaff, the Tristram Shandy of тАШCurrachee,тАЩ spinning yarns inside yarns, allusive, affirming, and grandly comic.тАЭтАФJoshua Ferris, author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
тАЬWild, wise, and tender . . . Every page in this book is a playground, and each sentence an absolute thrill and joy to read.тАЭтАФPatricia Engel, author of The Veins of the Ocean
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тАЬCompletely original in form and sensibility.тАЭтАФHa Jin, winner of the National Book Award┬а