Items related to Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan
Children of Dust A memoir that reveals the inside story of Muslim fundamentalism in rural Pakistan, the culture shock of moving to the American Bible Belt, and a young man's journey of reconciliation with his Islamic identity. It explores the place of women and children, describing life and friendship in the severe environment of a madrassa. Full description
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Review:
[Eteraz’s] adventures are a heavenly read. (O, The Oprah Magazine)
Wildly entertaining, Children of Dust is memoir of the first order, as genuinely American as Muslim, unraveling the perilous mystery that is modern Pakistan as only memoir can. Unlike others, Eteraz has truly ‘been there,’ and we are all the better for it. (Murad Kalam, author of Night Journey)
The gripping story of a young man exposed to both the beauty and ugliness of religion. (Laila Lalami, author of Secret Son)
A love letter to one man’s fading faith, Children of Dust is a gift and a necessity, and should be read by believers and nonbelievers alike. Sure to deepen our collective conversation about religion and reason, loyalty and universality, and our geopolitical aims, it’s also just plain fun to read. (Yael Goldstein Love, author of Overture: A Novel and The Passion of Tasha Darsky)
“In Children of Dust . . . we follow the journey of a soul determined to reconcile the many worlds that live inside him. In a time rife with cultural misinterpretations and generalizations, sensitive accounts such as Children of Dust are invaluable assets.” (Laleh Khadivi, novelist, author of The Age of Orphans)
An astoundingly frightening, funny, and brave book. At a time when debate and reform in the larger landscape of the Muslim world, and in countries like Pakistan in particular, are virtually non-existent, Children of Dust is a call to thought. (Fatima Bhutto, poet and writer)
This elegantly written memoir traces [Eteraz’s] relationship with the religion of his birth, from his childhood in Pakistan, where he feared beatings at the madrassa, to adulthood in the U.S. . . . Thoughtful and wry, he offers glimpses of a changing Pakistan and a U.S. immigrant’s journey, too. (Booklist)
“A gifted writer and scholar, Eteraz is able to create a true-life Islamic bildungsroman as he effortlessly conveys his comingof- age tale while educating the reader. When his religious awakening finally occurs, his catharsis transcends the page.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A ...complex story of a young man’s journey into the heart of his own faith.... Knowledgeable, humorous and personable, Eteraz is an engaging storyteller.” (San Jose Mercury News)
Compelling. (Washington Post)
From the Back Cover:
Wildly entertaining, Children of Dust is memoir of the first order, as genuinely American as Muslim, unraveling the perilous mystery that is modern Pakistan as only memoir can. Unlike others, Eteraz has truly ‘been there,’ and we are all the better for it. (Murad Kalam, author of Night Journey)
The gripping story of a young man exposed to both the beauty and ugliness of religion. (Laila Lalami, author of Secret Son)
A love letter to one man’s fading faith, Children of Dust is a gift and a necessity, and should be read by believers and nonbelievers alike. Sure to deepen our collective conversation about religion and reason, loyalty and universality, and our geopolitical aims, it’s also just plain fun to read. (Yael Goldstein Love, author of Overture: A Novel and The Passion of Tasha Darsky)
“In Children of Dust . . . we follow the journey of a soul determined to reconcile the many worlds that live inside him. In a time rife with cultural misinterpretations and generalizations, sensitive accounts such as Children of Dust are invaluable assets.” (Laleh Khadivi, novelist, author of The Age of Orphans)
An astoundingly frightening, funny, and brave book. At a time when debate and reform in the larger landscape of the Muslim world, and in countries like Pakistan in particular, are virtually non-existent, Children of Dust is a call to thought. (Fatima Bhutto, poet and writer)
This elegantly written memoir traces [Eteraz’s] relationship with the religion of his birth, from his childhood in Pakistan, where he feared beatings at the madrassa, to adulthood in the U.S. . . . Thoughtful and wry, he offers glimpses of a changing Pakistan and a U.S. immigrant’s journey, too. (Booklist)
“A gifted writer and scholar, Eteraz is able to create a true-life Islamic bildungsroman as he effortlessly conveys his comingof- age tale while educating the reader. When his religious awakening finally occurs, his catharsis transcends the page.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A ...complex story of a young man’s journey into the heart of his own faith.... Knowledgeable, humorous and personable, Eteraz is an engaging storyteller.” (San Jose Mercury News)
Compelling. (Washington Post)
Ali Eteraz's Children of Dust is a spellbinding portrayal of a life that few Americans can imagine. From his schooling in a madrassa in Pakistan to his teenage years as a Muslim American in the Bible Belt, and back to Pakistan to find a pious Muslim wife, this lyrical, penetrating saga from a brilliant new literary voice captures the heart of our universal quest for identity.
Children of Dust begins in rural Islam at the lowest levels of Pakistani society in the turbulent eighties. This intimate portrayal of rustic village life is revealed through a young boy's eyes as he discovers magic, women, and friendship.
After immigrating with his family to the United States, Eteraz struggles to be a normal American teenager under the rules of a strict Muslim household.
In 1999, he returns to Pakistan to find the villages of his youth dominated by the ideology of the Taliban, filled with young men spouting militant rhetoric, and his extended family under threat. Eteraz becomes the target of a mysterious abduction plot when he is purported to be a CIA agent, and eventually has to escape under military escort.
Back in the United States, with his fundamentalist illusions now shattered, Eteraz tries to find a middle way within American Islam. At each stage of Eteraz's life, he takes on a different identity to signal his evolution. From being pledged to Islam in Mecca as an infant, through Salafi fundamentalism, to liberal reformer, Eteraz desperately struggles to come to terms with being a Pakistani and a Muslim.
Astonishingly honest, darkly comic, and beautifully told, Children of Dustis an extraordinary adventure that reveals the diversity of Islamic beliefs, the vastness of the Pakistani diaspora, and the very human search for home.
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- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication date2009
- ISBN 10 0061567086
- ISBN 13 9780061567087
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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