Arif Anwar

“A remarkable debut, in which fiction vividly portrays specific events in history.”—Booklist (starred review) “This powerful and important debut is a story for our time.” —Library Journal (starred review) From an immensely talented new voice in international fiction, a sweeping tour de force that seamlessly interweaves five love stories that, together, chronicle sixty years of Bangladeshi history. Shahryar, a recent PhD graduate and father of nine-year-old Anna, must leave the US when his visa expires. In their last remaining weeks together, we learn Shahryar’s history, in a vil­lage on the Bay of Bengal, where a poor fisherman and his wife are preparing to face a storm of historic proportions. That story intersects with those of a Japanese pilot, a British doctor stationed in Burma during World War II, and a privileged couple in Calcutta who leaves everything behind to move to East Pakistan following the Partition of India. Inspired by the 1970 Bhola cyclone, in which half a million-people perished overnight, the structure of this riveting novel mimics the storm itself. Building to a series of revelatory and moving climaxes, it shows the many ways in which families love, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another. At once grounded in history and fantastically imaginative, The Storm explores the human­ity that connects us beyond the surface differences of race, religion, and nationality. It is an epic novel in the tradition of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, by a singularly gifted and perceptive new writer.

A Novel

The Storm

Inspired by the 1970 Bhola Cyclone, in which half a million people perished overnight, The Storm seamlessly interweaves five love stories that, together, chronicle fifty years of Bangladeshi history. Shahryar, a recent Ph.D. graduate and father of nine-year-old Anna, must leave the US when his visa expires. As father and daughter spend their last remaining weeks together, Shahryar tells Anna the history of his country, beginning in a village on the Bay of Bengal, where a poor fisherman and his Hindu wife, who converted to Islam out of love for him, are preparing to face a storm of historic proportions. Their story intersects with those of a Japanese fighter pilot, a British female doctor stationed in Burma during World War II, a Buddhist monk originally from Austria, and a privileged couple in Calcutta who leave everything behind to move to East Pakistan following the Partition of India. The structure of this riveting novel mimics the storm itself – building to a series of revelatory and moving climaxes as it explores the many ways in which families love, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another. At once grounded in history and fantastically imaginative, The Storm is a sweeping epic in the tradition of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance by an immensely talented new voice in international fiction.

Ein Sturm zieht auf. Die Naturgewalten brechen sich Bahn. Danach ist nichts mehr, wie es war. Aber nicht nur die äußeren Katastrophen, auch die eigenen, oft kleinen Entscheidungen bestimmen manchmal über ein ganzes Leben. Und das der folgenden Generationen. Bangladesch, 1970. Honufa sammelt ihre Habseligkeiten zusammen. Sie sucht einen verhängnisvollen Brief. Sie schickt ihren kleinen Sohn in Sicherheit. Sie bangt um ihren Mann auf See. Sie bittet den falschen Gott um Hilfe. Washington, D. C., 2004. An einem stürmischen Abend bringt Shahryar seine sechsjährige Tochter Anna in ihr Zuhause, das nie seins war. Er wird das Land bald verlassen müssen. Vermachen kann er ihr nur die Erinnerungen an seine Heimat, seine Geschichte und an die Menschen, die er immer für seine Eltern hielt. Arif Anwar verwebt die Geschichten verschiedener Personen, die sich über mehrere Generationen, Kontinente und Jahrzehnte spannen und doch alle zusammenhängen. Vermeintliche Gewissheiten werden in Frage gestellt, während sich immer neue Rätsel auflösen. Anwars Saga erzählt, wie die Vergangenheit die Gegenwart formt, wie zählebig religiöse Feindschaft sein kann und wie wirkmächtig das koloniale Erbe ist. Vor allem aber hat Anwar einen eindrucksvollen Roman über Versöhnung geschrieben, darüber, wie Menschen einander helfen und wie man seine Familie findet, unabhängig davon, ob man tatsächlich verwandt ist.

Arif Anwar

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