A review by ayeshab31
In the Company of Strangers by Awais Khan

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.