THE WANDERING FALCON


In this extraordinary story, Tor Baz, the young boy who becomes the Wandering Falcon, moves between the tribes of Pakistan and Afghanistan and their uncertain worlds full of brutality, humanity, deep love, honor, poverty, and grace. The region he travels—the Federally Administered Tribal Area—has become a political quagmire known for terrorism and inaccessibility. Yet in these pages, debut author Jamil Ahmad lyrically and insightfully reveals the people who populate those lands, their tribes and traditions and their older, timeless ways in the face of sometimes ruthless modernity. This story is an essential glimpse into a hidden world, one that has enormous geopolitical significance today and that remains largely a mystery to us.

more …

In this extraordinary story, Tor Baz, the young boy who becomes the Wandering Falcon, moves between the tribes of Pakistan and Afghanistan and their uncertain worlds full of brutality, humanity, deep love, honor, poverty, and grace. The region he travels—the Federally Administered Tribal Area—has become a political quagmire known for terrorism and inaccessibility. Yet in these pages, debut author Jamil Ahmad lyrically and insightfully reveals the people who populate those lands, their tribes and traditions and their older, timeless ways in the face of sometimes ruthless modernity. This story is an essential glimpse into a hidden world, one that has enormous geopolitical significance today and that remains largely a mystery to us.

less …
  • Penguin
  • Paperback
  • October 2012
  • 9781594486166

Buy the Book

Bookshop.org indies Bookstore

About Jamil Ahmad

Jamil Ahmad was born in 1930 and died in 2014. He joined the Civil Service of Pakistan in 1954 and served mainly in the Frontier Province and Baluchistan. He was also development commissioner for the Frontier and chairman of the Tribal Development Corporation, and was posted as minister in Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul at a critical time, before and during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He lived in Islamabad with his wife, Helga Ahmad, a nationally recognized environmentalist and social worker.

Video

field_56ec2f974922f

Interviews

field_56ec2fb149230

Essay

penguinrandomhouse.com