A Splintering: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick - Hardcover

Amna, Dur E Aziz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0715655892 ISBN 13: 9780715655894

Publisher: Duckworth, 2025

Synopsis

'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

WINNER OF THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS 2026

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE

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An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition

In a village in rural Pakistan, Tara is waiting and watching. The smell of dung and dust hangs over her world. She is desperate to leave the petty life of 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 sufficient either. She wants what the rich mothers at her children’s school have. She wants what their husbands have. But can she truly shake her past? And what of the menacing spectre of her brother, a reminder of the threads that tie her to the life she left behind?

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.

About this title

About the Author

Dur e Aziz Amna is from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and now lives in Newark, USA. Her debut novel, American Fever, was published in 2023 and won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and the South Asia Book Award. Her work also 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 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. 

Edition details

• Publisher: Duckworth
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0715655892
• ISBN 13: 9780715655894
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288