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This Is Where the Serpent Lives cover

This Is Where the Serpent Lives

Daniyal Mueenuddin

0

awards won

6

score

#1831 of 8,085 books · #873 in Fiction

Shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction (2026) and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (2026).

Moving from Pakistan's dazzling chaotic cities to its lawless feudal countryside, This Is Where the Serpent Lives powerfully evokes contemporary feudal Pakistan, following the destinies of a dozen unforgettable characters whose lives are linked through violence and tragedy, triumph, and love. Orphaned as a little boy and fending for himself in the city streets, Yazid rises to a place of responsibility and respect in the Lahore household of Colonel Atar, a powerful industrialist and politician, only to find that position threatened by conflicting loyalties and misplaced trust. Born on Colonel Atar's country estate to a poor gardener, Saqib is entrusted with the management of a pioneering business, but he overreaches and finds himself an outlaw, confronting the violence of the corrupt Punjab Police. The colonel's son competes with his cherished brother for the love of a woman and discovers that her choice colors his life with unexpected darkness as well as light. In matters of power and money and the heart, Mueenuddin's characters struggle to choose between paths that are moral and just and more worldly choices that allow them to survive in the systems of caste, capital, and social power that so tightly grip their culture.

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Publisher
Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN-13
9789373037462
Genre
Fiction
Topics
Feudal society and powerFamily and loyaltyClass and social hierarchy

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