-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A perfect book club read for those who love morally gray women.
In a village in rural Pakistan, Tara is watching and waiting. The smell of dung and dust hangs over her world. She is desperate to leave her petty life in the village and escape the iron grip of her violent, unpredictable brother.
Marrying a middle-class accountant allows her to escape to the capital, but she soon finds that life as a respectable housewife is not enough. She wants what the rich mothers at her children's school have. Her desire for wealth and freedom becomes an obsession—one for which she'll push her marriage and herself to the brink. When her brother comes back into her life, dragging the specter of all she's escaped, Tara must decide if there are any lines she won't cross to live the life she deserves.
Set against a hypnotic, oppressive backdrop of political violence and natural disaster, A Splintering traces the class struggle of a woman stuck between province and metropolis, between motherhood and ambition. Disquieting and utterly gripping, it is an extraordinary achievement by Dur e Aziz Amna, an exploration of a complex and unforgettable character who will risk everything to carve out a life of her own.
"Tara is an unforgettable character, seething, stubborn, and self-aware, demanding independence in a society that very much does not want to give it to her. Amna's writing is gorgeous, and she does an excellent job pinning Tara's story to events in recent Pakistani history. This is a remarkably bold novel from an undeniable talent. A fiery novel about a character who wants more than just a room of her own." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This novel deserves a warning label: it's a raw, unflinching portrait of feminine rage, gender constraints, class resentment, and the corrosive pull of worldly ambition...A bold, uncomfortable, and brilliantly executed character study." —Booklist (starred review)
"A lacerating novel by a writer of great insight and deep compassion." —Mohsin Hamid, author of The Last White Man
"Smart and gripping – I read it in one sitting. Tara is a glorious creation, crackling with life and aspiration and sensuality." —Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
This information about A Splintering was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dur e Aziz Amna is the author of American Fever, winner of the 2023 South Asian Book Award and the APALA Award for Literature. Her work appears in the New York Times, Financial Times, and Al Jazeera, among others. She was selected as Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2022 and won the 2021 Salam Prize and the 2019 Financial Times / Bodley Head Essay Prize. She is a graduate of Yale College and the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. Born and raised in Pakistan, she now resides in New Jersey.
If you liked A Splintering, try these:
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
