The City

The city, or as it is often called Saeed and Nadia’s city, is unnamed within the text, though many readers will be tempted to read it as Lahore, where the author was born. As it is represented in the novel, the city undergoes a number of changes, or evolutions. Once the romantic place where Saeed’s father and mother met, the city when the novel opens is caught in the crossfire between the government and the militants. The city becomes an increasingly restrictive and dangerous place not simply for Saeed and Nadia but for all its inhabitants. Public and private executions are common, as are bodies hanging from lampposts and street signs. Apocalyptic food and money shortages are common. However, in the final chapter, it is suggested that the city survives, being neither a hell nor a heaven but simply a city like any other city...