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sarah_faichney's review against another edition
5.0
A stunning debut, "In The Company Of Strangers" encompasses many themes including the social mores of Lahori high society, the fashion industry (and modeling in particular), terrorism and radicalisation, obligation and love. Awais Khan's writing brings Lahore to life with unflinching honesty and authenticity, beautifully illustrating the difference between those who have and those who have not. The book confirms (with a great deal of humour) that spiteful, bitchy women are the same the world over. There are lots of cultural references throughout, which I particularly enjoyed. Some of the story makes for difficult reading, for example we are shown the many ways in which domestic violence is normalised and accepted. There are also some sub-themes at play including fractured friendships, drug abuse and prostitution. I'm really keen not to give spoilers as I didn't know anything about the book when I read it and I felt this enhanced the experience for me. There were a couple of expletives uttered as some of the plot points came to light! Khan is a masterful storyteller, skilfully capturing the heat, dust and claustrophobia of the city. I thought that the plot came together extremely well. Overall it was a compulsive and truly satisfying read which ran me through the gamut of emotions. As a final point I would like to thank Awais Khan for writing middle-aged women as real people with thoughts, feelings and desires when so often we are cast aside or left unseen.
booksanddregs's review against another edition
4.0
Mona, one of the elites lives in the posh areas of Lahore, Pakistan with her husband Bilal. The two married for twenty years still struggle to find solace in each other. Mona’s dominant and surprisingly misogynist mother-in-law detests her, leaving Mona no one but herself for company. She has everything a woman can long for, caring friends, a lavish home, trail of servants and a high social status. But, a broken marriage haunts her. She yearns for her husband’s love, his care, his affection. Exasperated of the married life where she’s insulted, belittled, physically and sexually abused by her husband she wants out. Freedom seems close by when she ends up locking eyes with a young attractive model at a fashion show.
•
Ali, emotionally wounded in his late-twenties, emerges as the new hot gossip as he returns to a profession he turned his back on long ago; modeling. With his charismatic personality he attracts the attention of a broken woman years older than him and finds himself desperately longing for her. After more than a few unexpected encounters he lets his guard down and pursues her. Blinded by treacherous love all he sees is the way she makes him feel when she’s around him.
•
Breaking the shackles of religion and society the two find themselves falling for each other igniting a wave of heated romance, but they’ve to keep their love a perilous secret. But things take an impromptu path when Ali accidentally gets involved with a terrorist group led by Mir Rabiullah who puts up a facade of being a pious God fearing man. When Ali’s brother Hussain had disastrously lost a leg in a bomb blast Mir had offered to pay for his prosthetic leg and thus he remains in Mir’s debt. Naive Ali, too late to judge Mir’s intentions finds himself grounded amidst bombs and guns. But when he’s given a choice to choose between his family and Mona he does what none expected him to do.
•
At first the book was a little hard to get into for me, but as it proceeded it grew on my and I found myself enjoying it, I loved all the characters, how detailed and precise they were. Khan did a great job of meeting all the strewn ends and painting a beautiful picture of each character. The writing was so easy to comprehend, it was a perfect balance of plot progression and descriptive analysis. For a debut it was grasping and totally captivating!!
•
Ali, emotionally wounded in his late-twenties, emerges as the new hot gossip as he returns to a profession he turned his back on long ago; modeling. With his charismatic personality he attracts the attention of a broken woman years older than him and finds himself desperately longing for her. After more than a few unexpected encounters he lets his guard down and pursues her. Blinded by treacherous love all he sees is the way she makes him feel when she’s around him.
•
Breaking the shackles of religion and society the two find themselves falling for each other igniting a wave of heated romance, but they’ve to keep their love a perilous secret. But things take an impromptu path when Ali accidentally gets involved with a terrorist group led by Mir Rabiullah who puts up a facade of being a pious God fearing man. When Ali’s brother Hussain had disastrously lost a leg in a bomb blast Mir had offered to pay for his prosthetic leg and thus he remains in Mir’s debt. Naive Ali, too late to judge Mir’s intentions finds himself grounded amidst bombs and guns. But when he’s given a choice to choose between his family and Mona he does what none expected him to do.
•
At first the book was a little hard to get into for me, but as it proceeded it grew on my and I found myself enjoying it, I loved all the characters, how detailed and precise they were. Khan did a great job of meeting all the strewn ends and painting a beautiful picture of each character. The writing was so easy to comprehend, it was a perfect balance of plot progression and descriptive analysis. For a debut it was grasping and totally captivating!!
nymeria_reads's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book definitely had some good parts but overall, it failed to leave the impact that it hinted and promised to. It was all just kind of there, nothing really concluded properly and even the way it played out didn't make much sense beyond being dramatic and cliche.
thevagabondlawyer's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A promising debut by a promising author, In the Company of Strangers by Awais Khan is an engaging novel about the intricacies of love, the complexities of married life, the intricateness of the web of terror all wrapped in this tense but quite sad story set in Pakistan. There are heaps of emotional movement here and trigger warnings. Mr. Khan is prolific and he knows well how to hone his sentences to make it readable and compelling. This novel should have garnered the full attention it deserves in the literary world.
javeria's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ayeshab31's review
5.0
So I have a lot to say about this book, firstly the blurb at the back doesn’t do it justice it’s way more complex than that. I usually don’t go for books on serious matters but this one was an exception and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The story follows Mona and Ali, she is an upper class woman who preferred her past when she was young and poor but happy as compared to the present where she has to put up a facade of “the perfect wife” to maintain her husband’s reputation. Whereas Ali is an emerging model, who had previously left the industry because he saw through “the elite Lahori society”. Mona is drawn to Ali because he sees her as Mona and not Mrs.Bilal, which is what her identity had been for the most part of her life. They fall in love knowing that it goes against the social construct, Ali is Mona’s escape from her loveless and abusive marriage and a way to relive her youth. And for Ali, Mona is a comfort against all the unfairness inflicted upon him; his brother’s operation, being forced to help a terrorist organisation etc.
janice73's review
dark
emotional
informative
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
raven88's review
5.0
I will try to resist the urge to completely gush about Awais Khan’s In The Company Of Strangers, but this is something really quite special indeed. Written with such a stark clarity and perceptive tenderness, this story of love, conflict, religion, wealth and poverty set in Pakistan, was unutterably moving throughout.
As we become immersed in the lives of Mona and Ali, who ostensibly are polar opposites, but who make a vital and emotive connection, Khan draws us into their contrasting worlds so vibrantly and movingly throughout. Mona, who on the outside looking in, seems to have the perfect lifestyle, but there is a dark undercurrent to her relationship with her husband, and an intense dissatisfaction beneath the surface, bound up with issues of abuse, fidelity, age and status. I was mesmerised by the drawing and depiction of her character, as she really encapsulated all the doubts and insecurities that many women carry despite outward appearances. Her character is a maelstrom of emotion and self-questioning, but so sensitively depicted that the reader begins to feel a real connection and empathy with her. I will say less about Ali, the main male protagonist, as the gradual reveal of his inner demons is powerfully unfolded as the story progresses. Again, he is a character that is beautifully drawn, and represents on many levels the gaps and fissures in society of money, religion and social unrest. His tentative interactions and then growing relationship with Mona, whilst balancing the demands of family loyalty and coercion into acts of violence, is sublimely realised.
Khan also completely captures the mercurial nature of Pakistan itself, from the atmosphere of the city itself, to the disparity of its citizens, the unassailable gap between poverty and wealth, and the overarching threat of violence and unrest. There is a vibrancy and colour to Khan’s writing that not only exudes from his characters, but also the more mundane aspects of everyday life for these city dwellers, so that the high emotion of the central narrative is kept grounded by his other observations, and touches of the ordinary. As you can tell, I was incredibly impressed with this book, which also achieved a rare thing indeed, leaving me with a tear in my eye at its close. This has only happened once before, so I think that is probably a striking testament to the power and sensitivity of Khan’s writing. Highly recommend this one, and looking forward to this author’s next book.
As we become immersed in the lives of Mona and Ali, who ostensibly are polar opposites, but who make a vital and emotive connection, Khan draws us into their contrasting worlds so vibrantly and movingly throughout. Mona, who on the outside looking in, seems to have the perfect lifestyle, but there is a dark undercurrent to her relationship with her husband, and an intense dissatisfaction beneath the surface, bound up with issues of abuse, fidelity, age and status. I was mesmerised by the drawing and depiction of her character, as she really encapsulated all the doubts and insecurities that many women carry despite outward appearances. Her character is a maelstrom of emotion and self-questioning, but so sensitively depicted that the reader begins to feel a real connection and empathy with her. I will say less about Ali, the main male protagonist, as the gradual reveal of his inner demons is powerfully unfolded as the story progresses. Again, he is a character that is beautifully drawn, and represents on many levels the gaps and fissures in society of money, religion and social unrest. His tentative interactions and then growing relationship with Mona, whilst balancing the demands of family loyalty and coercion into acts of violence, is sublimely realised.
Khan also completely captures the mercurial nature of Pakistan itself, from the atmosphere of the city itself, to the disparity of its citizens, the unassailable gap between poverty and wealth, and the overarching threat of violence and unrest. There is a vibrancy and colour to Khan’s writing that not only exudes from his characters, but also the more mundane aspects of everyday life for these city dwellers, so that the high emotion of the central narrative is kept grounded by his other observations, and touches of the ordinary. As you can tell, I was incredibly impressed with this book, which also achieved a rare thing indeed, leaving me with a tear in my eye at its close. This has only happened once before, so I think that is probably a striking testament to the power and sensitivity of Khan’s writing. Highly recommend this one, and looking forward to this author’s next book.
itsnikhat's review
3.0
In the Company of Strangers is a debut novel with a take on Pakistani high society and its fashion industry. Having never been a part of either of settings, their actions and behaviour seemed a little too startling to me at times. I think the author has done a brilliant job at highlighting the lifestyle — The facade the people have to put up to keep up their reputation, the get togethers which when missed will be considered as an insult, etc.
This story starts off with Mona visiting her estranged best friend, Meera, after a long time and in the process getting pulled into Meera’s world. Meanwhile, we are also introduced to Ali, who along with his family represents the suffering caused by terrorism trying to destabilise the government. This book contains it all! Suspense, forbidden romance, angst and an air of impeding doom. Though I didn’t like any of the characters, I was able to sympathise with most of them. I wish there was more of continuity in their behaviour. The author has done a good job at portraying how misogynistic views are maintained at every level of the social structure.
From the beginning, the story seemed to build up to something big, and the ending was wrapped up a bit too quickly for my taste. Overall, I would say it is a good story highlighting various wrongs and leaves you with many thoughts. If you’re looking for a forbidden romantic thriller, this is the book to go with!
This story starts off with Mona visiting her estranged best friend, Meera, after a long time and in the process getting pulled into Meera’s world. Meanwhile, we are also introduced to Ali, who along with his family represents the suffering caused by terrorism trying to destabilise the government. This book contains it all! Suspense, forbidden romance, angst and an air of impeding doom. Though I didn’t like any of the characters, I was able to sympathise with most of them. I wish there was more of continuity in their behaviour. The author has done a good job at portraying how misogynistic views are maintained at every level of the social structure.
From the beginning, the story seemed to build up to something big, and the ending was wrapped up a bit too quickly for my taste. Overall, I would say it is a good story highlighting various wrongs and leaves you with many thoughts. If you’re looking for a forbidden romantic thriller, this is the book to go with!
ameerah's review
1.0
TW: Domestic violence, mention of rape, death and suicide bombing.
The story was actually decent but the vile fat/body shaming, misogyny and some problematic descriptions ruined the book for me and I cannot give it more than 1☆.
Whilst I understand that the author may have did this on purpose to show the toxicity of certain groups, I felt it was excessive and there was not one single character that was against the body shaming. No voice of reason or anyone calling out the bullshit which makes it hard to see the (meaningful) purpose behind it all.
Sorry but men writing things like "Information had become as precious as virgins on a hot night" is just
The story was actually decent but the vile fat/body shaming, misogyny and some problematic descriptions ruined the book for me and I cannot give it more than 1☆.
Whilst I understand that the author may have did this on purpose to show the toxicity of certain groups, I felt it was excessive and there was not one single character that was against the body shaming. No voice of reason or anyone calling out the bullshit which makes it hard to see the (meaningful) purpose behind it all.
Sorry but men writing things like "Information had become as precious as virgins on a hot night" is just