Saleebain Apni Apni By Rafi Mustafa Aks Publications ISBN: 978-9697313877 432pp.

If you are looking for a novel to spend some time with, a book that pulls you in and tells you a story that stays with you for a long time, then Rafi Mustafa’s Saleebein Apni Apni [To Each Their Own Cross] should be well worth your attention. It is the kind of novel that grips you early on and draws you into a world of relationships, faith, friendship and emotional complexity.

The book starts off with the author explaining the meaning of the title of his novel. He says that there is a metaphor about everyone bearing the burden of their own difficulties and choices, just like the characters of his book.

The novel is set in the early 1960s in Hyderabad, Sindh, where most of the story unfolds and other settings include Chittagong in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Parvez, Daniel, Maryam and Youhanna Arif are the four main characters of the story and the latter three, like several other characters in the novel, are Christians. The story revolves mostly around churches, schools, Christian homes and communities, all of which provide a distinctive atmosphere in the novel, since such settings and characters are not common in Urdu fiction.

Parvez is the narrator and Daniel is his closest friend. Both are university students. Despite belonging to different faiths, the two share a close bond.........

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