A Splintering: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick
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By Dur e Aziz Amna
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1 review
‘Smart and gripping – I read it in one sitting. Tara is a glorious creation, crackling with life and aspiration and sensuality’ Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
WINNER OF THE STANFORDS FICTION AWARD 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2026
An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition
In a dusty village in rural Pakistan, Tara is waiting and watching. She is desperate to leave her small-town life of the village and flee the iron grip of her violent, unpredictable brother. Marriage takes her to the city, but respectability proves to be just another kind of cage.
Set against a hypnotic, oppressive backdrop of political violence and natural disaster, A Splintering traces the class struggle of a woman stuck between province and metropolis, between motherhood and ambition. Even as Tara acquires wealth, her hunger grows for a different life – one of power, possibility and freedom. What limits will she breach for that life? How far will she trangress? Disquieting and utterly gripping, it is an extraordinary achievement by Dur e Aziz Amna, an exploration of a complex and unforgettable character who will risk everything to get what she wants.
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What a great narrator! If you like a strong, ruthless and fiercely ambitious protagonist you'll love Tara. A Splintering is a great story with great characters told in a very readable style. Learned lots about Pakistan and the oppressive patriarchal system but also about class as the narrator battles her way from a poor village to a very comfortable city life. But not without a huge price to pay....
