The Wish Maker: A review

When TIME magazine reviewed and recommended Ali Sethi's The Wish Maker, I knew I had to read this one. I looked at the cover jacket and I knew I had to buy this one just for the sake of the cover design alone.

The Wish Maker is ambitious. It is such an easy read and yet you keep feeling the writer is trying hard to reach the levels of an epic. A coming of age story that ,through flashbacks, spans several decades, it follows the lives of Zaki, a teenager in the '90s, his family and their struggles. The pillars of the story are the three women: Zaki's grandmother, mother and cousin-sister Samar Api who become vessels of a narration of a nation

A reason I would graciously give this book an extra star: it's set in Lahore. My Lahore. It is woven in such an effortless way, it takes you within itself, through the times, into a Lahore that I had grown up in. The author is so obviously in love with the city.

Admittedly, the book did disappoint me at some levels. Firstly, it was inconsequential. The characters grew. But they failed to evolve. The narration continues. But the story refused to resolve. There were junctures where I felt myself saying No man, don't do this. Stop the rumbling. Get to the story. I wish the story had culminated into soething more convincing.

Ali Sethi is a name to watch out for. His sophomore book, I hope, would be a treat to read; and I'm already looking forward to that!