Bullet-holes In My Windshield

A bullet-hole in a windshield, with far-reaching cracks spreading out as a chaotic web, dividing the continuous sheet of glass into discrete fragments. Fragmented stories of a violent city come together like a jagged piece of glass; in the end, the picture is almost complete.

Dark themes stand in stark contrast to the tender lives of three generations of Pakistanis. The English is subcontinental, and the work is beautiful is both form and function. But as it transforms into an immersive experience, The Scatter Here Is Too Great bites off more than it can chew.

Scatters are conventionally unstructured; Bilal Tanweer creates one such scatter here. He zigzags through themes of love, belief and violence, and drowns us in a confusing maze of ideas. A longer work that would communicate these thoughts more easily would come at the expense of Tanweer's pace.

This book, however, overcomes these mild drawbacks and presents itself with a powerful, integral soul. I want to visit Karachi now.