What Remains After a Fire

Javed (Ashes, Wine and Dust) illuminates the lives of members of the Pakistani diaspora in this nuanced collection. In “Rani,” a divorced Muslim woman cares for her grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s. Remembering the twice-divorced young woman who worked as a live-in maid in her house when she was a girl, she’s surprised to feel a kinship with the other woman. A father supports his heroin addiction in “Stray Things Do Not Carry a Soul” by killing stray dogs for a 50-rupee bounty, which unsettles his son who narrates the story (“He enjoyed aiming and watching the dogs tremble, fall... it was like a melody to his ears, or a game. A game he always won”). One of the most insightful entries, “Worry Doll,” reveals the inner life of Zara, a Pakistani immigrant in Maryland, brought over as a “dependent” by her husband, who is studying for his PhD. Having given up a career in public relations in Karachi, Zara struggles in her new, smaller life in the U.S., and gradually gains independence after she learns how to drive. Here and elsewhere in the collection, Javed skillfully captures the tedium of daily life, showing how Zara’s “days were cloaked in dullness.” It’s an impressive outing. (Sept.)