Alexander Khan

This is not an easy read and, to some extent, stops just as the story starts to get interesting. It is a first person account of a Lancashore child, born of Pakistani father and English mother. As a small child he is taken to Pakistan and doesn;t see her again until an adult. His father dies and he is then in the care of his extended family. What happens next is child abuse, as sanctioned by the wider fmaily and using religion and culture as a means to justify he ill treatment. It is not an show more easy read. More disturbing is the failure of some of the family to step in and actually do anything about it. He experiences a madrassa, has a marriage arranged and finally returns to the UK.
The story finishes at 16 with the author as a barely educated boy, no qualifications, no skills, working in the corner shop of a relative. How he gets from there is left unknown and that, to me, is the more interesting story, how you re-invent yourself, new name, new job, new wife, the works from a dreadful starting point is surely the more interesting story. Knowing that the author is now married and seems to have overcome his dreadful start in lofe made reading this more bearable. It was certainly a hard read, not relaxing or comfortable. Enjoy is not the word to describe the experience.
I have concerns that this will only serve to reinfornce certain racial stereotypes, that of the honour killing, the religious extremeist, the uneducated minority. That left me somewhat uncomfortable.
This book was provided as part of the Shelterbox Book Club and the author particiapted in the discussion. The follow on story is not necessarily the one we would want to read, no happy ending to this fairy tale. show less

I didn't like Orphan of Islam at all. How it can be compared to [b:The Kite Runner|77203|The Kite Runner|Khaled Hosseini|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394898159s/77203.jpg|3295919] is beyond me.

Orphan of Islam is simply a list of things happening to a child who has no idea what is going on, takes no decisions about anything and has zero impact on his life whatsoever (except at one point near the end).

All the characters are one-dimensional, and there's absolutely nobody to relate yourself to show more since the book entirely lacks any emotion or goal.

The account of the nation of Pakistan in the book seems to be a single minded attempt to highlight the worst of the worst aspects of it. If your only idea about life in Pakistan is this book (and perhaps some Western media) you will see it as a torturous, Midieval desert inhabited solely by uneducated, overly religious savages. Moreover, the description of the Pakistani immigrant population in England is one of a terrible group of extremists (which is dangerous and demagoguish, if you ask me).

Having lived and worked in Pakistan on and off the past eight years, I cannot stress hard enough that there's a whole other story to be told too.

Overall, the book is not worth your time. The image painted of islam and Pakistan is a terrible one and the story in itself is not compelling. show less