Kartography

by Kamila Shamsie

  and I can only dimly understand the startled peace when the boy closes the man’s sightless, tear-rimmed eyes and the globe hurls all its oceans at us,

  wave

  after wave

  after wave.

  . . .

  In Karachi’s streets even the mourners turn their faces skywards to the rain and falling leaves. Between sheets of water, indistinct figures dance together.

  I take Karim’s hand and pull him into the music.

  ‘Follow me,’ I say. ‘I know the way.’

  About the Author

  KAMILA SHAMSIE’s first novel, In the City by the Sea, was shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize. After her second novel, Salt and Saffron, she was named one of the Orange Futures “21 Writers for the 21st century”. A recipient of the Award for Literary Achievement in Pakistan, she lives in Karachi and London, where she writes frequently for The Guardian. She often teaches in the U.S.