The End of Innocence

by Moni Mohsin (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $5.30

  'Perched on the edge of a car seat, Rani and Laila hurtled towards a love story ...' Western Pakistan, the winter of 1971, and nine-year-old Laila has a secret. Ignored by the adults around her yet desperate to know their world, Laila takes comfort in being the confidant of teenager Rani - privy to details of the older girl's forbidden love affair. But when that affair bears unwelcome fruit, a floundering Rani leans on Laila for solace and support. Yet Laila - still a child - neither comprehends the danger nor is able to help; and thus unwittingly leads Rani towards catastrophe ...

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $3.25

  It is 1971: while a savage civil war rages in East Pakistan, a thousand miles away in West Pakistan, in the safe, cosy village of Sabzbagh, life appears to continue undisturbed. An ancient preoccupation with family honour and social propriety dominates the lives of peasants and landed gentry alike. It is here at her family estate in Sabzbagh, that naive, privileged nine-year-old Laila is spending her winter vacation. Laila's world is peopled by adults - progressive parents, a protective ayah, and an imperious, old-fashioned grandmother. Adored and indulged though she is, Laila feels excluded from this enigmatic grown-up world. Much like the young heroes of her favourite Enid Blyton adventures, she yearns for a slice of the action, and with a best friend by her side. This friend is Rani - the spirited teenage granddaughter of a family servant. Rani, however, is hurtling into a forbidden love affair, and when she becomes pregnant, she has no one to turn to but Laila. Eager but artless, Laila plunges headlong into helping Rani. As she flounders in an adult world she does not understand, Laila unwittingly unleashes a catastrophe. This is the story of a guileless relationship between two girls; and as the larger political reality unfolds tragically in the background, so politics is played with Rani. The End of Innocence is a coming-of-age story not just of two children, but of a country and an ideology.