Of Smokeless Fire

Djinns-the invisible beings made ofsmokeless fire are Allah's creations. Human beings cannot create or beget them but whether it was a djinn or not a rumour took birth that day that a djinn was born at the residence of Noor ul Haq bar-at-law. So begins the story of a lifelong friendship between three unlikely children. Mansoor the rumoured djinn who balances his love and loyalty between his devoutly religious mother and his erudite alcoholic father. Mehrun the churail-a Medusa-like creature-who struggles to get an English-medium education the elusive ticket out of poverty. And Joseph the bhangi a derisive name for a sweeper who dreams of becoming a movie star as he cleans the toilets of the rich and powerful. Wearing their insults like a garland they transgress society's norm and follow their dreams. Their lives intimately tied to the vagaries of Pakistan's politics alternating between tragedies and triumphs.Of Smokeless Fire is a story about belonging and displacement. It is a reminder that belonging is not just about allegiance and exile is not just physical. The novel asks the questions: Once you are ripped from your homeland do you become homeless forever? What does it mean to live in a land that has forsaken you? Whether rooted or uprooted is your relationship with your country conditioned by its politics?