The Bride

The Bride is a novel set in the isolated reaches of the Hamaliyas in Nothern Pakistan, along the Karakoram Highway that links Pakistan to China. Qasim, a mountain tribsman, adopts an orphaned girl, Zaitoon, and brings her up in the glittering, bustling, decadent city of Lahore. As the years pass, Qasim grows nostalgic about his life in the mountains; and in the fifteen-year-old girl's romantic imagination she sees a region of tall, light-skinned men, who roam the Himalayas like gods. Impulsively, Qasim promises Zaitoon in marriage to a man of his tribe. But the ancient, harsh customs and the behavior of her husband prove impossible for the bride to live with - though the only escape is one from which there is no return.