Caly's TOP 5 in 2025 | A Splintering - Dur e Aziz Amna

Caly says... Vividly Poignant and achingly multi-faceted, this is an astonishing story of violence, sexuality, ambition and the brutalising affects of patriarchy in Pakistan and beyond. Told through the daughter of a poor farming family in rural Pakistan we are confronted with the complex struggles that line the road to independence and the dangerous sacrifices made through ambition and rage. A must read! 

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In a village in rural Pakistan, Tara is waiting and watching. The smell of dung and dust hangs over her world.

She is desperate to leave the petty life of the village and escape the iron grip of her violent, unpredictable brother. Marrying a middle-class accountant allows her to escape to the capital, but she soon finds that life as a respectable housewife is not sufficient either. She wants what the rich mothers at her children’s school have.

She wants what their husbands have. But can she truly shake her past? And what of the menacing spectre of her brother, a reminder of the threads that tie her to the life she left behind?