Burnt Shadows

Hiroko visits a bookstore and notes that a nearby coffee shop where Hiroko once met with other Japanese women living in Karachi is now closed. Hiroko could never admit to the other Japanese women that she was a survivor at Nagasaki, even though she was able to tell her Pakistani neighbors. In the bookstore, Hiroko looks at a copy of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, but another customer tells her that Western writers are “the enemies of Islam” (144). Hiroko believes that the trend of “aggressive religion” will pass and remembers her students who became kamikaze pilots. Hiroko waits for Raza to pick her up, noting that he has been acting strangely.

Raza arrives, handing Hiroko a newspaper in which the exam results are listed. Raza admits that, overwhelmed with anxiety, he did not complete the final essay on Islamic studies. Raza kept his failure a secret out of fear over of how the neighborhood, and especially Sajjad, would react. Hiroko comforts Raza and asks him if he actually wants to be a lawyer; Raza admits that he wants to study languages. Hiroko notes that Raza seems handle loss and disappointment with more struggle than either of his parents.

Hiroko breaks the news of Raza’s failure to Sajjad, who is initially angry but agrees to treat Raza gently. Hiroko points out that Raza can re-take the exam in the fall, before college starts, and may still get to enroll. Sajjad goes out to find Raza and finds him hiding from Bilal and the other neighborhood boys. 

Harry Burton, the son of Ilse Weiss and James Burton, is now an American CIA operative on assignment in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Harry travels to Karachi to reunite with Sajjad, whom he has not seen since he left India for boarding school as a child. Harry arrives at the Ashraf home and is greeted by Raza, who is simultaneously impressed by Harry’s American glamour and offended by Harry’s assumption that Raza doesn’t speak English. Raza shows off his linguistic prowess, and Harry is impressed, correctly guessing that Raza is Sajjad and Hiroko’s son. Sajjad is delighted to see Harry, and the two men share memories of their time together in Delhi. Sajjad introduces Harry to Hiroko, who tells Raza that Harry is Konrad Weiss’s nephew. Raza explains to Harry that his full name is Raza Konrad Ashraf. Harry is surprised, considering the name Konrad unlucky.

Harry asks Raza if he has enrolled in college, and a tense moment passes before Sajjad changes the topic and asks after Harry’s father, James. Harry, dismissive, tells them that James recently survived a heart attack and is back to partying with his Gentleman’s Club but that his mother—who now uses the name Ilse Weiss—will be delighted to hear that Harry has found them in Karachi. Raza, awestruck by Harry, worries that his parents will tell the American that Raza failed his exam a second time, once again due to anxiety. Sajjad was unable to hide his disappointment at Raza’s second failure, and the neighborhood boys distanced themselves from Raza. Sajjad wants Raza to take the exam again in a few months, but Raza is sure he will fail again. 

Harry is driven by Sher Mohammed, a local CIA asset, to meet Sajjad and Raza at the Karachi fish harbor. Sajjad and Harry leave Raza asleep in the car, and Sajjad gives Harry Raza’s rubber shoes to wear. Sajjad shows Harry around the market and points out the Makranis, the original inhabitants of the region who are descended from enslaved Africans, calling Karachi “a city of comings and goings” (162). Harry notes that Sajjad talks of Karachi the way he used to talk about Delhi, and Sajjad agrees that much has changed. One of Sajjad’s brothers was killed in the Partition riots, another is also in Pakistan, and his third brother lives in poverty in India, dispossessed of the family home for being Muslim. Sajjad says that he used to blame James for all that happened but that he now thinks “this is my life, I must live it” (165).

Harry surveys the fish market wharf, wondering how many people there are involved in arms smuggling. Harry’s covert operations support the US proxy war in Afghanistan: The CIA buys weapons and sends them to Karachi, where the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s corresponding agency, transports the weapons to training camps for Islamic guerilla fighters, the mujahideen, who are sent to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Harry has not told the Ashraf family that he is with the CIA but knows that many assume all Americans in Pakistan are CIA because of the ongoing Cold War.

Meanwhile, Raza wakes in the car to discover his shoes missing and Harry and Sajjad gone. Not seeing Harry’s shoes, which were left for him, Raza sets out barefoot, coming across two Pashtun refugees from Afghanistan in a truck nearby. Raza calls out to the men in Pashto, which he learned from an Afghani bus driver, and the men assume that Raza is a Hazara, another ethnic group native to Afghanistan, because Raza’s combined Japanese and Pakistani facial features resemble the Hazara people. Raza plays along, pretending to be an Afghan refugee. A 14-year-old Pashtun Afghan boy, Abdullah, arrives and tells Raza to come find him in Sohrab Goth, a neighborhood of refugees, by looking for the painting of a dead Soviet soldier on Abdullah’s truck. Harry arrives and kneels before Raza apologetically, carrying his shoes. Abdullah looks at Raza in awe as the American man kneels before him.