In the Afghan-Pakistan hills a young boy is born in a remote fort.
He is only a child when both his parents are killed, after which he is passed from pillar to post as he becomes our introduction to many of the diverse tribes of the region. Before long his presence on these pages is to be missed, as The Wandering Falcon becomes a collection of linked stories and his importance reduces. But the book still remains of indefinable structure, as the episodes can be quite unsatisfactory – based on reported dialogue at length, open-ended, or just windows to the world.
Still, it is some world – arranged marriages, honour killings, and peoples who have expected and accepted kidnapping seasons as they close in on the twenty-first century. This is therefore given some large promise of realism and veracity, but as it stands the patchy structure and at-times unfathomable characters make for quite a woolly read.
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