Fatima Bhutto was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and grew up between
Syria and Pakistan. She is the author of five previous books of
fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, The Shadow of the Crescent
Moon, was long listed for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction
and the memoir about her father's life and assassination, Songs of
Blood and Sword, was published to acclaim. Her most recent book is
The Runaways.
She graduated from Barnard with a degree in Middle Eastern
Languages and Cultures and has a masters in South Asian Government
and politics from SOAS. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at
@fbhutto.
Fatima Bhutto vividly renders the seductions of Islamic
radicalization in such a way that we understand both its historical
specificity and its universal roots in idealism and desire, rage
and romance, youth and rebellion. Drawn from the headlines but
plunging much deeper, The Runaways is a novel for our difficult
times.
*Viet Thanh Nguyen*
An astute and searing take on anomie and radicalization.
*Kirkus Reviews*
Stunning ... Bhutto's descriptions trade between stark beauty and
restrained horrors, encompassing the damp of a rain-soaked slum,
the wonder of self-caging birds, and the pure brightness of
moonshine over the desert ... Her pages are brutal and surprising,
and their revelations stand to unmake and rebuild their
audiences.
*Foreword Reviews (Starred Review)*
Dramatic. ... With poetic writing, Bhutto slowly reveals the
characters' connections as well as some compelling twists, and
makes a convincing case that extremism, especially for young
people, is driven more by feelings of alienation than religion.
*Booklist*
Told in alternate chapters from the points of view of all three
protagonists, the book moves forward and backward, explaining their
motivations in spare, almost jaunty prose that elicits empathy for
the troubled teens and stands in stark contrast to the seriousness
of the plot. Bhutto's penetrating character study convinces all the
way to the inevitable bloody end.
*Publishers Weekly*
The Runaways is an extraordinary novel by an author whose attention
to detail [and] exceptionally effective narrative storytelling
style has created the kind of book that will linger in the mind and
memory long after it has been finished.
*Midwest Book Review*
A meticulous psychological study of who turns to radicalism and
why. ... A provocative investigation of courage, and how it can
foment either salvation or damnation.
*Minneapolis Star Tribune*
The Runaways, with its complex fusion of ideas-personal, national,
and transnational identity; the relationship between fervor and
self-destruction; and the nature of the matrix within which we
live-generates a complex fictional topography. The sensibilities of
the novel's protagonists suggest a new dynamic of power relations
in which politics and selfhood, empire and psychology prove to be
profoundly interrelated.
*World Literature Today*
The Runaways is a finely wrought novel. ... Both thought-provoking
and humane.
*CounterPunch*
[The characters'] alternating voices give a kaleidoscopic feel to
the plot, and yield a panoramic look at the roots of
radicalism.
*New York Times*
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