Table of Contents
Praise forSongs of Blood and Swords
The book [Songs of Blood and Sword] is at once a heartbreaking love story between father and daughter; a pilgrimage across the globe to fill in the missing pieces about her father and the Bhutto familys history; an autopsy of Pakistans corrupt ruling elite; and Fatimas take on the ills at the heart of Pakistans relationship to the West. Its also a riveting political tale filled with cliff-hangers and pathos.
Elizabeth Rubin, Vogue
Mesmerizing... Songs of Blood and Sword is passionate, it is romantic, it is colorful.
Brooke Allen, Barnes and Noble Review
Her mesmerizing book often has the feel of a detective inquiry into the events of a Jacobean tragedy in which a dynasty is inexorably eliminated. But its much more than that: a biography of her father; a memoir of a fractured, nomadic childhood largely spent in exile in Afghanistan and Syria; and a history of Pakistan since partition. What might have been a poignant but limited exercise in filial piety is instead a multi-layered work, as remarkable for its adroit interweaving of the personal and the political as for its ambitious scope.
John Dugdale, The Guardian
Its a dramatic story that tells of feudal power and dynastic infighting, yet sums up the failings of Pakistani democracy, when one entitled family can so dominate its political landscape.
Arifa Akbar, The Independent
Beautifully written in lyrical prose.
Khushwant Singh
She is a compassionate and brave campaigner who ought to be heard.
Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
Admirable and touching... fascinating... gripping... essential reading.
Brenda Maddox, The Times
Songs of Blood and Sword is a daughters memoir, but it is also more than that. Through the history of the Bhutto family, rich feudal landlords of a warrior caste, she tells the story of the newly created state of Pakistan. It is a book about the power of love, but also about a search to avenge her fathers brutal murder.
Janine Di Giovanni, Daily Telegraph
Her book will be valuable to readers who want to understand why Pakistan is such an ungovernable mess. In her account, the countrys entire political culture is based on corruption, violence, opportunism, mendacity and a feudal economic system.
Thomas W. Lippman, Washington Post
The author documents her familys history in her memoir, which is both violent and romantic and that excavates the small things about their lives. The book is a historical walk through her late fathers life, and its also a family history, showing how her surname and the country are tied together... how the family has been part of the turbulence of a country conflicted.
Lori Kozlowski, Los Angeles Times
Political intrigue, administrative corruption and widespread avarice, refracted through a narrative of family history and sibling hostilities, make Songs of Blood and Sword read like a darker version of Vikram Seths A Suitable Boy.
Malcolm Sen, Irish Times
For those who like their history presented in personal terms, it will not disappoint. Hope, injustice, drama and grief are all ably captured and conveyed in what is a highly readable introduction to the grim realities of domestic politics in Pakistan.
Roderick Matthews, Observer (London)
Fatima, niece of famous Pakistani leader Banazir Bhutto, exposes the corruption and violence that shes experienced first-hand, and an inspiring and stalwart hope in a more just future. The big picture politics are anchored by a very personal story about a daughter searching for the truth about her fathers murder. Incredibly moving.
Feministing
Fatima Bhutto has dug deep, bravely confronted those in power and searched far and wide for answers and understanding.
New York Journal of Books
... a lucid and engaging account of a nation and a family.
Publishers Weekly
A bleak, disturbing picture of a country of strategic importance to American foreign policy.
Kirkus
Moving, witty... a uniquely fascinating, wonderfully wellconstructed memoir.
William Dalrymple, Financial Times
The Bhuttos are an Asian Borgia or Plantagenet dynastic family. This then is an important and timely book offering a rare insight into the violent world of Pakistani politics told by a direct witness. Its also the story of a daughters love for her murdered father and many other members of her family. Power not only corrupts it kills.
Sir Bob Geldof
For my Joonam, Nusrat, who is always with me
And my mother Ghinwa
for giving me life
THE BHUTTOS OF LARKANA
Taken from a family tree commissioned by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and kept in 70 Clifton
Poem of the Unknown
On your breast lay
the deep scar of your enemy
but you standing cypress did not fall
it is your way to die.
In you nestles songs of blood and sword
in you the migrating birds
in you the anthem of victory
Your eyes have never been so bright.
KHOSROW GOLSURKHI (Executed 1972)
Preface
12 November 2008
It is almost eleven at night in Karachi. From my bedroom in 70 Clifton I can hear the constant hum of traffic. Im used to the sound now; it has become the soundtrack to my writing and thinking here. But now there are sirens too. Ambulances, or maybe politicians, driving around the city blaring out announcements of their arrival. Heavily armed elite guards, mainly Rangers toting Kalashnikovs, accompany them. Sometimes, theres gunfire. More often than not, its a staccato burst and it sounds far away. Its not the wedding season in Karachi, when macho males take to the streets and spray the sky with bullets. Its not New Years Eve, traditionally boisterous and often peppered with gunfire to mark the start of the New Year. This is the new Karachi. But weve seen it all before.
Fourteen years ago I missed weeks of school because of the violence that had taken hold of our city. I remember going to sleep hearing the hum of bullets nearby. I remember picking up the newspapers the next morning and seeing the previous nights body count. It was a dangerous city then, my Karachi. The Sindhi PPP government launched a genocidal strike, called Operation Clean-Up, against the ethnic Muhajirs who form the bulk of the MQM political party. The MQM began to hit back. They formed their own death squads and the sound of their revenge became aggressively familiar too.
There were moments, when I was younger, when it scared me to be here in Karachi, in this house. I used to shiver in the dead of summer nights, begging myself to sleep and praying that I might push past the fear of the violence and the spectres of the dead that surrounded me and my city. But one night I heard the mynah birds outside my window crowing at five in the morning. After that I would wait to hear them, these dark, rough birds, and I would fall asleep as they reassured me with their raven song that we had defeated the night once more. I made my peace with 70 Clifton and with this city when I realized that the sounds of the mynah birds would not follow me elsewhere and that I would miss them should I pack my bags and head somewhere far away
