The Story Of A Widow - Opening

PROLOGUE

AKBAR AHMAD WAS FELLED by a stroke one year before his retirement from the finance ministry and three days after being diagnosed with high cholesterol. He was fifty-nine years old. His wife and daughters blamed his untimely demise on excessive eating, his only acknowledged vice. The family remembered him in all other respects as a model of righteousness.

For my mother

Tanveer Fatima Farooqi

Published by Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright 2008 Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Knopf Canada and colophon are trademarks

First edition

Printed and bound in the United States of America