Bapsi Sidhwa takes you on an unforgettable journey into the tribal areas of Pakistan and leaves you with a range of emotions.

‘The Pakistani bride' revolves around a girl named Zaitoon, who goes through many ups and downs in her life. At a very young age she loses her parents during the Pakistan and India Partition.

Later on the same day she was adopted by a guy named Qasim who witnessed the whole scene, and he himself faced many losses in his life, including the death of his wife and kids. So Qasim and zaitoon start living with Marium and Nikka in Lahore. As time passed Zaitoon grew older, and Marium helped her through her life as a mother.Soon enough Qasim promises her hand in marriage to his nephew from the tribes. Marium tries her best to prevent this marriage but Qasim was a man of his word, he didn’t back down. They start travelling towards the northern area and on their way they meet an American women carol who was married to a Pakistani businessman but was having an affair with Major Mushtaq.They helped Zaitoon and Qasim reach their destination.

When Zaitoon gets married, Qasim leaves her alone and goes back to Lahore ignoring all her cries. Zaitoon’s husband was only a few years older than her, and had an ego centered personality, he abused his wife due to the male dominating society and the pressure of his family and because of the change in environment and the attitude of the people Zaitoon runs away.

The whole tribe started looking for her, so they could kill her in front of everyone just for the sake of Sakhi and his family’s pride. Maryam was later on rescued by Major Mushtaq who fakes her death, by telling everyone that she died and he buried her and takes her to Lahore to start a new life for her, without the horrible memories of her past.

The ending brought tears into my eyes and a small smile onto my lips. Who knew Zaitoon growing up all pampered like a flower will end up living a nightmare and Qasim, her own father would her in that hell hole.

Bapsi Sidhwa holds the title of the first Pakistani English female writer, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to read one of her books.

This book highlights many issues of the society which include, the mistreatment of women, the importance of education, the stereo typical of marriages, gender inequality and male dominance in the society.

In my opinion it was a very well written book but could’ve elaborated on Zaitoons married life instead of her childhood, but in general the book was an amazing masterpiece and I loved it.