22 Dec / The Opium Prince by Jasmine Aimaq [in Shelf Awareness]
In her extraordinary fiction debut, The Opium Prince, Afghan Swedish academic and communications expert Jasmine Aimaq, who lives in Canada, combines elements of literary thriller, sociopolitical exposé, and historical witnessing. The Afghan people lived in relative – albeit tense – balance between the 1973 coup d’etat that ousted the monarchy and the 1978 assassination of President Mohammed Daoud Khan, which led to ongoing, unending wars. Appointed director of Kabul’s USADE (United States Against the Drug Economy), Daniel Sajadi returned to his birth country with his U.S. education, his California wife, their diplomatic immunity – and stepped into the shadow of his late father, an Afghan hero.
What should have been a celebratory anniversary getaway becomes a pivotal tragedy when Daniel’s Mercedes fatally hits nine-(or maybe 10)-year-old Telaya. Her nomad Kochi parents aren’t sure of her age, but her father insists, “She was the only thing of value in my life.” The power of the Sajadi name saves Daniel from the police, but emboldens the mysterious Taj, a powerful figure in the local opium supply chain, to make uncompromising demands that threaten not only Daniel’s existence, but the safety of many innocent others. The morality play begins.
Aimaq skillfully parallels Daniel’s and Taj’s lives – one utterly advantaged, the other destitute but determined. Both are relentlessly haunted by Telaya’s death, one crippled by guilt, the other loss. Determining right and wrong quickly becomes impossible, perhaps even interchangeable, as Aimaq deftly confronts foreign aid, global drugs, foreign privilege, cultural entitlement, family loyalty and legacy, against the backdrop of two strangers whose future becomes inextricably, horrifically entangled. Who triumphs – or even just survives – is never guaranteed.
Discover: The accidental death of a young girl engenders a dangerous, manipulative relationship between a privileged NGO director and desperate a opium khan in late-1970s Afghanistan.
Review: “Mystery & Thriller,” Shelf Awareness, December 22, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020