Table Of ContentCover Page: iii
Title Page Page: iii
Copyright Page: i
Contents Page: iv
Dedication Page: v
Epigraph Page: vii
Prologue Page: 1
Part One Page: 5
Chapter One Page: 7
Chapter Two Page: 10
Chapter Three Page: 14
Chapter Four Page: 18
Chapter Five Page: 25
Chapter Six Page: 40
Chapter Seven Page: 50
Chapter Eight Page: 65
Chapter Nine Page: 78
Chapter Ten Page: 85
Chapter Eleven Page: 95
Chapter Twelve Page: 107
Chapter Thirteen Page: 112
Chapter Fourteen Page: 122
Chapter Fifteen Page: 129
Chapter Sixteen Page: 133
Chapter Seventeen Page: 140
Chapter Eighteen Page: 152
Chapter Nineteen Page: 156
Chapter Twenty Page: 173
Chapter Twenty-One Page: 180
Chapter Twenty-Two Page: 185
Part Two Page: 197
Chapter Twenty-Three Page: 199
Chapter Twenty-Four Page: 206
Chapter Twenty-Five Page: 215
Chapter Twenty-Six Page: 219
Chapter Twenty-Seven Page: 225
Chapter Twenty-Eight Page: 230
Chapter Twenty-Nine Page: 234
Chapter Thirty Page: 242
Chapter Thirty-One Page: 245
Chapter Thirty-Two Page: 256
Part Three Page: 263
Chapter Thirty-Three Page: 265
Chapter Thirty-Four Page: 272
Chapter Thirty-Five Page: 281
Chapter Thirty-Six Page: 288
Chapter Thirty-Seven Page: 293
Chapter Thirty-Eight Page: 296
Chapter Thirty-Nine Page: 301
Chapter Forty Page: 307
Chapter Forty-One Page: 312
Chapter Forty-Two Page: 318
Chapter Forty-Three Page: 322
Chapter Forty-Four Page: 328
Acknowledgments Page: 333
A Note on Sources Page: 337
About the Author Page: 339
Description:“Stunning not only on account of the author’s talent, of which there is clearly plenty, but also in its humanity.” —New York Times Book Review (cover) Sent back to his birthplace—Lahore’s notorious red-light district—to hush up the murder of a girl, a man finds himself in an unexpected reckoning with his past. Not since childhood has Faraz returned to the Mohalla, in Lahore’s walled inner city, where women continue to pass down the art of courtesan from mother to daughter. But he still remembers the day he was abducted from the home he shared with his mother and sister there, at the direction of his powerful father, who wanted to give him a chance at a respectable life. Now Wajid, once more dictating his fate from afar, has sent Faraz back to Lahore, installing him as head of the Mohalla police station and charging him with a mission: to cover up the violent death of a young girl. It should be a simple assignment to carry out in a marginalized community, but for the first time in his career, Faraz finds himself unable to follow orders. As the city assails him with a jumble of memories, he cannot stop asking questions or winding through the walled city’s labyrinthine alleyways chasing the secrets—his family’s and his own—that risk shattering his precariously constructed existence. Profoundly intimate and propulsive, The Return of Faraz Ali is a spellbindingly assured first novel that poses a timeless question: Whom do we choose to protect, and at what price?