It’s 1986. 17-year old Pakistani student, Sikander, is enamored with America and longs to live there. But enraged after a quarrel with parents he decides to leave home. After meeting visiting Afghan mujahideen he joins their struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Along with fighting, he finds love, just as US-supplied weapons bring victory to hand. Marrying his love, he returns with her to Pakistan, becoming an entrepreneur there.
But when 9/11 happens, Sikander must return to Afghanistan to help escaping relatives, placing him on a collision course with the country in which he still yearns to live—America.
It’s 1986. Seventeen-year-old Sikander dreams of studying and living in America. But enraged after a father-and-son confrontation over an unintended indiscretion about the family, he feels compelled to leave his comfortable Peshawar, Pakistan home. He soon encounters Afghan mujahideen fighters who persuade him to join their struggle against the occupying Soviets.
The tide of the conflict begins to turn with Ronald Reagan's stepped up supply of advanced weapons with which Sikander becomes increasingly familiar. Two years following Sikander’s arrival the Soviets finally commit to withdrawing and by now, Sikander also discovers romance. As his love blossoms and with the encouragement of his Afghan hosts he marries and he and his bride take a mule journey over the mountains to Pakistan, where he is warmly welcomed and reconciles with family.
With the war over, Sikander settles in Pakistan to become a successful entrepreneur there. The yearning to live in America continues to burn away at him and he works to fulfill his dream but it is rudely shattered on 9/11. His wife’s anguish together with his own concern for his Afghan relatives drive him to cross into Afghanistan to assist them. Despite a pro- and anti-Taliban rift in the family, Sikander persuades them to escape the war-ravaged country with him. The perilous journey, however, places Sikander himself on a collision course with the one country he’s always dreamed of—America.
Excerpt
Home. The word acquired new depth and breadth in Sikander’s mind. He wanted to swim in its welcoming warmth. It was a warmth that penetrated the coldest, darkest recesses of his consciousness—recesses which even in the short span of his life thus far had needed to make room for memories of conflict, hatred, dismemberment, death, and friends lost, now each an integral part of his being. Unlike a necrotic limb, however, they could never be amputated from his psyche.
Professional Reviews
Insights and Explanations: a Novel of Wonder - Grady Harp, Amazon Top 10 Reviewe
Were there more novels like this astonishing, absorbing and challenging one by M. Salahuddin Khan then perhaps the confusion and chaos of the world response to the seemingly endless wars of the past decades would ease. With all the grace of an experienced writer (this is Khan's first full length novel though he has served as Publisher for Islamica Magazine, a quarterly journal that is written in English for Muslim readers as a forum for discussing current events and philosophical differences), Khan launches the reader into a maze of pathways of understanding just why we have become so confused and overwhelmed by the cross-section of Christian and Islam beliefs - and he does this in the person of an idealistic Pakistani youth (Sikander) whose life is complexly tattooed with events and coincidences, choices and commitments that lead him from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Scotland to the USA.
But the most intriguing and successful part of this fine novel is the insight Khan gives to the plight of prisoner versus captor in the way he explores the Guantanamo apex of the story. In ultimately narrowing this epic to the interaction between an American soldier guard and an innocent Pakistani detainee, Khan manages to explain conflicts so basic and roots of core friendships so unique that he allows us to see the madness of war and its consequences on individuals no matter what their prior backgrounds can mean. This is a book that will affect the thinking of all who are fortunate enough to read it, providing a path to understanding and appreciation for human rights. Grady Harp, July 10
Lovers of Kite Runner will love this! - Ami Blackwelder - Author
If you read the Kite Runner and loved it, you will enjoy this book as well. I loved both, touching and informative. The reader will leave the pages feeling well versed in Middle Eastern thought as well as feel emotional over the characters.
Hard to put down, the pages kept me turning at night ...next to my cup of tea. But each day I felt anticipation of reading further into the story and learning more about this exquisite, difficult, and torn culture as well as the well thought out characters.
Great details, genuine dialogue and one unforgettable story.
SIKANDER is recommended to anyone who loves Middle Eastern thought, wants to learn about the Middle East more, enjoys history, and also for those who love a great story!
SIKANDER by M. Salahuddin Khan - Review by C. A. Webb of Conversations Book Club
There are books that you sometimes find that are great entertainment. Then there are those that you read when you want to be educated and informed. Those that combine these factors are sometimes said to be Edu-tainment---and I would definitely put Khan's SIKANDER in that category.
I am not exaggerating at all when I say that I have never read anything like it. The author takes you into a place and time that we hear about in the news or read about in articles and stories, but so few of us think about the people that live in those places. There are good people that find themselves in the midst of trouble and difficulty everyday, regardless of what country they live in or color of their skin.
SIKANDER gives us a real people to understand, appreciate and get to know before we pass judgment---and then as the story unfolds, we are allowed to form our own opinions about what sort of man (or woman) any individual might be.
With passion, real feeling and just the skill of a thoughtful writer, M. Salahuddin Khan has created what is nothing short of a literary masterpiece.
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