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Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter's Memoir
In September 1996, fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto hid in a windowless dressing room, shielding her baby brother, while shots rang out in the dark outside the family home in Karachi. This was the night her father Murtaza was murdered. It was the latest in a long line of tragedies for one of the world's best-known political dynasties. Songs of Blood and Sword tells the story of a family of feudal landlords who became powerbrokers. It is an epic tale of intrigue, the making of modern Pakistan, and ultimately, tragedy. A searing testament to a troubled land, Songs of Blood and Sword reveals a daughter's love for her father and her search to uncover the truth of his life and death.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
192 people are currently reading
3251 people want to read
About the author
Fatima Bhutto
15 books770 followersFatima Bhutto studied at Columbia University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Her work has appeared in The Daily Beast,
New Statesman, and other publications. She was a featured panelist at the 2010
Daily Beast Women in the World Summit, and has been featured on NPRs Morning Edition, CNN, and in the pages of Marie Claire. She currently lives in Karachi.
"
New Statesman, and other publications. She was a featured panelist at the 2010
Daily Beast Women in the World Summit, and has been featured on NPRs Morning Edition, CNN, and in the pages of Marie Claire. She currently lives in Karachi.
"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 215 reviews
December 14, 2020
In September 1996,Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's son,and Benazir Bhutto's brother,Murtaza Bhutto was shot dead by the police in Karachi.At the time,Benazir was still Prime Minister !
Fatima Bhutto is Murtaza's daughter.She was fourteen when her father was killed.Her father had earlier divorced her Afghan born mother,whom he had married in exile.Fatima was then brought up by her Lebanese born step mother,Ghinwa.
She has penned the story of her father,and the Bhutto dynasty.
It is a loving daughter's memoir,so it's not really objective. Murtaza Bhutto was a controversial figure,who formed the organization Al Zulfiqar.
A PIA plane was hijacked by it in 1981,and a passenger was shot dead.It was an attempt to put pressure on the regime of General Zia ul Haq.The hijackers then found refuge in Libya.
However,this episode is glossed over in the book.When it's mentioned,Murtaza instead takes credit for saving the lives of 100 passengers !
The book does acknowledge,however,that Murtaza tried to assassinate General Zia ul Haq by bringing down his plane.
The other activities of Al Zulfiqar against the Pakistani state are not mentioned,when Murtaza lived in exile.However,she acknowledges that he met Indira Gandhi in India,without providing the details.
She places the blame for Murtaza's murder,squarely on Asif Zardari,husband of Benazir Bhutto.Zardari was President of Pakistan when this book was published.
Benazir also comes in for plenty of flak.She and Murtaza had a falling out over the issue of party leadership.Murtaza was sidelined after his return to Pakistan.Fatima also highlights Benazir's corruption,and seems to have little love for her.
She also discusses the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto era.Not surprisingly,her grandfather is projected very positively.He too,was infact a very controversial figure.He was deposed in a military coup in 1977,and hanged in 1979.
The elder Bhutto was married the first time at thirteen.He was promised a cricket bat to get married,so that the Bhutto clan could get their hands on his bride's huge landholdings.
He didn't live with that wife,she remained confined to the village.Bhutto later married an Iranian woman,Nusrat by his own choice.She was the mother of his four children.
There is also an account of the mysterious death of Fatima's uncle,Shahnawaz,in France.She talks about the possible involvement of his wife,and even how Benazir could benefit by the death of her brothers,as the sole heir to Z.A.Bhutto's political legacy.
It is an interesting book.The storytelling is good.Some of her observations about Pakistan's politics are valid.But the portrayal of her father is from a daughter's perspective,and is very one sided.She is frustrated that all her father's police killers walked away free.
Reading this,I was reminded of another book on her father's life,The Terrorist Prince by Raja Anwar.That book is a detailed account of his violent activities in exile.
Fatima Bhutto is Murtaza's daughter.She was fourteen when her father was killed.Her father had earlier divorced her Afghan born mother,whom he had married in exile.Fatima was then brought up by her Lebanese born step mother,Ghinwa.
She has penned the story of her father,and the Bhutto dynasty.
It is a loving daughter's memoir,so it's not really objective. Murtaza Bhutto was a controversial figure,who formed the organization Al Zulfiqar.
A PIA plane was hijacked by it in 1981,and a passenger was shot dead.It was an attempt to put pressure on the regime of General Zia ul Haq.The hijackers then found refuge in Libya.
However,this episode is glossed over in the book.When it's mentioned,Murtaza instead takes credit for saving the lives of 100 passengers !
The book does acknowledge,however,that Murtaza tried to assassinate General Zia ul Haq by bringing down his plane.
The other activities of Al Zulfiqar against the Pakistani state are not mentioned,when Murtaza lived in exile.However,she acknowledges that he met Indira Gandhi in India,without providing the details.
She places the blame for Murtaza's murder,squarely on Asif Zardari,husband of Benazir Bhutto.Zardari was President of Pakistan when this book was published.
Benazir also comes in for plenty of flak.She and Murtaza had a falling out over the issue of party leadership.Murtaza was sidelined after his return to Pakistan.Fatima also highlights Benazir's corruption,and seems to have little love for her.
She also discusses the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto era.Not surprisingly,her grandfather is projected very positively.He too,was infact a very controversial figure.He was deposed in a military coup in 1977,and hanged in 1979.
The elder Bhutto was married the first time at thirteen.He was promised a cricket bat to get married,so that the Bhutto clan could get their hands on his bride's huge landholdings.
He didn't live with that wife,she remained confined to the village.Bhutto later married an Iranian woman,Nusrat by his own choice.She was the mother of his four children.
There is also an account of the mysterious death of Fatima's uncle,Shahnawaz,in France.She talks about the possible involvement of his wife,and even how Benazir could benefit by the death of her brothers,as the sole heir to Z.A.Bhutto's political legacy.
It is an interesting book.The storytelling is good.Some of her observations about Pakistan's politics are valid.But the portrayal of her father is from a daughter's perspective,and is very one sided.She is frustrated that all her father's police killers walked away free.
Reading this,I was reminded of another book on her father's life,The Terrorist Prince by Raja Anwar.That book is a detailed account of his violent activities in exile.
February 1, 2012
One of the rare gestures in which I gave five stars to a book,and the reasons for that are as follows:-
1. The book is a memoir,written by a girl part of the famous political hierarchy- 'The Bhuttos'. It contains detailed description of the emergence of 'The Bhuttos' as a Political force to reckon with in Pakistan and also includes the degradation and corruption which got imbibed in the Party structures later on.
2. The language is simple and easy to understand. The book vividly personifies each and every character including Mir Murtaza Bhutto-the deserving heir to the Bhutto clan to Benazir,who virtually drew her political party and the country into a political dictatorship.
3. Lastly, its a book about relationships, and above all its a book about love of a daughter towards her father and vice versa. The relationship suffers every kind of trauma that you can ever imagine. The last 20 odd pages almost brought tears to my eyes.
I salute Fatima Bhutto for standing up and making her voice hear in a Nation and under a Political cloud which is dangerous for her and her family. The girl has courage .
Bravo!!
1. The book is a memoir,written by a girl part of the famous political hierarchy- 'The Bhuttos'. It contains detailed description of the emergence of 'The Bhuttos' as a Political force to reckon with in Pakistan and also includes the degradation and corruption which got imbibed in the Party structures later on.
2. The language is simple and easy to understand. The book vividly personifies each and every character including Mir Murtaza Bhutto-the deserving heir to the Bhutto clan to Benazir,who virtually drew her political party and the country into a political dictatorship.
3. Lastly, its a book about relationships, and above all its a book about love of a daughter towards her father and vice versa. The relationship suffers every kind of trauma that you can ever imagine. The last 20 odd pages almost brought tears to my eyes.
I salute Fatima Bhutto for standing up and making her voice hear in a Nation and under a Political cloud which is dangerous for her and her family. The girl has courage .
Bravo!!
September 8, 2019
Written wittly, well constructed with flavors of emotion, curiosity, bais , research ,deep love and hate of Pakistani political arena.
Things seems boring in the start, but as story builds itself around villainous characters it seems interesting , feelings of fear n interest cross each other at occasions.
In the middle ,words get lengthyslow , the writer critiques on policies zia policies, and mixes it up with post exile struggle n love affairs of his father & her childhood.
The last part deals with the tragic ending of bhuttos
Things seems boring in the start, but as story builds itself around villainous characters it seems interesting , feelings of fear n interest cross each other at occasions.
In the middle ,words get lengthyslow , the writer critiques on policies zia policies, and mixes it up with post exile struggle n love affairs of his father & her childhood.
The last part deals with the tragic ending of bhuttos
September 8, 2019
I don't know why I expected, if not impartiality, at least some semblance of the truth?
I understand that she writes about her family but the idolisation of men like her father and grandfather makes me sick. She can't stop singing praises of zulfikar for fearlessly standing up to the military dictatorship but makes no mention of his own authoritarian leanings. Her father, who happily hobnobbed with terrorists and wholeheartedly participated in political violence is immortalised as a martyr and man of the people. This book needs to come with a disclaimer so readers who are not familiar with the history of modern Pakistan don't come to take it as fact.
I understand that she writes about her family but the idolisation of men like her father and grandfather makes me sick. She can't stop singing praises of zulfikar for fearlessly standing up to the military dictatorship but makes no mention of his own authoritarian leanings. Her father, who happily hobnobbed with terrorists and wholeheartedly participated in political violence is immortalised as a martyr and man of the people. This book needs to come with a disclaimer so readers who are not familiar with the history of modern Pakistan don't come to take it as fact.
August 2, 2023
Though beautiful prose and writing and a firm grip over the political and historical events of Pakistan, i couldn't help but notice its biased and tainted by the love of a daughter for her father, she has portrayed paki history's most controversial figures as either all positive or all negative
March 24, 2012
No one can deny that Fatima Bhutto is a good writer. The book is enjoyable to read, but provides an incredibly one-sided approach to Pakistani politics. If she focused more on the 'memoir' part rather than politics I probably would have given this a higher rating. The entire time I read the book I felt she was trying to convert me to her beliefs on Pakistani politics with very biased information. She doesn't approach the history/politics of Pakistan in an objective manner due to the fact that she is unable to let go of her family name when discussing the topic. She quickly dismisses the negatives of the family members she loves, and tries to convince us that those who disagree with those family members are evil/corrupt/etc. I think I can understand that she would hero-worship her father and grandfather, especially since they both did not die from natural deaths, but a consequence of that is she has an inability to approach these figures in a critical manner. In the beginning of the book she mentions that her thesis adviser warns her that a dissertation she was writing on her grandfather was too hagiographic, and I do not think that adviser would even consider this book as a work of scholarship. As such, when I read this I had to constantly remind myself that the subtitle is "A Daughter's Memoir."
May 23, 2011
‘We are a nuclear-armed state that cannot run refrigerators.’
In 1996, when Fatima Bhutto was 14 years old, her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto was shot dead by police outside his Karachi home. In this book, Ms Bhutto gives her account of his life as well as providing a view of the brutal and corrupt world of Pakistani politics. This is a world in which four members of the Bhutto clan have met violent deaths in just over 32 years.
‘Milan Kundera once said that the struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting; this is my journey of remembering.’
According to Ms Bhutto, her father’s adult life was given to two causes. The first was to avenge the death of his father, former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979, ousted by General Zia-ul-Haq. When General Zia-ul-Haq died in 1988, Mir Murtaza Bhutto focussed on protecting his father’s political legacy from his sister Benazir Bhutto. The rivalry between Murtaza and Benazir is central to this book, and while Ms Bhutto’s account of her father is affectionate and not deeply critical; the same cannot be said of her account of her aunt, Benazir Bhutto.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto left Pakistan in 1977 after the Zia regime took power, and he did not return until 1993. During his absence Benazir Bhutto became a political force within Pakistan, including a period as prime minister between December 1988 and August 1990. According to Ms Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s return represented a threat: ‘it seemed as if Murtaza was the only politician speaking against the status quo, instead of lining up to join it.’
Benazir Bhutto was prime minister when Mir Murtaza Bhutto was shot in 1996, and the policemen accused of killing him were acquitted in 2009, when Asif Ali Zardari (Benazir Bhutto’s husband) was president. It was these acquittals that prompted Ms Bhutto to publish this book.
I found Ms Bhutto’s account fascinating. While it is a deeply personal perspective of Pakistani and Bhutto history and politics, much of the detail of the political events described relies on the accounts of Mir Murtaza’s friends and colleagues. Ms Bhutto’s perspective may not allow for an entirely accurate interpretation of events, but it certainly raises a number of issues in relation to both Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s death and the nature of politics in Pakistan.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In 1996, when Fatima Bhutto was 14 years old, her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto was shot dead by police outside his Karachi home. In this book, Ms Bhutto gives her account of his life as well as providing a view of the brutal and corrupt world of Pakistani politics. This is a world in which four members of the Bhutto clan have met violent deaths in just over 32 years.
‘Milan Kundera once said that the struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting; this is my journey of remembering.’
According to Ms Bhutto, her father’s adult life was given to two causes. The first was to avenge the death of his father, former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979, ousted by General Zia-ul-Haq. When General Zia-ul-Haq died in 1988, Mir Murtaza Bhutto focussed on protecting his father’s political legacy from his sister Benazir Bhutto. The rivalry between Murtaza and Benazir is central to this book, and while Ms Bhutto’s account of her father is affectionate and not deeply critical; the same cannot be said of her account of her aunt, Benazir Bhutto.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto left Pakistan in 1977 after the Zia regime took power, and he did not return until 1993. During his absence Benazir Bhutto became a political force within Pakistan, including a period as prime minister between December 1988 and August 1990. According to Ms Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s return represented a threat: ‘it seemed as if Murtaza was the only politician speaking against the status quo, instead of lining up to join it.’
Benazir Bhutto was prime minister when Mir Murtaza Bhutto was shot in 1996, and the policemen accused of killing him were acquitted in 2009, when Asif Ali Zardari (Benazir Bhutto’s husband) was president. It was these acquittals that prompted Ms Bhutto to publish this book.
I found Ms Bhutto’s account fascinating. While it is a deeply personal perspective of Pakistani and Bhutto history and politics, much of the detail of the political events described relies on the accounts of Mir Murtaza’s friends and colleagues. Ms Bhutto’s perspective may not allow for an entirely accurate interpretation of events, but it certainly raises a number of issues in relation to both Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s death and the nature of politics in Pakistan.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
May 30, 2021
Disclaimer: Read this book ONLY you have a flair for masala.
This book has plenty of inside dirt from the author's point of view, about her aunt Benazir Bhutto, uncle Asif Ali Zardari, and several other members of the family and the political reign in Pakistan. Having heard a few stories from my parents about the situation there, I could understand and identify the problems the characters face with each other. But this is not a literary masterpiece. It's just a sort-of-autobiography by Fatima Bhutto, dedicated to her father. The details of many events, such as the assassinations and changing political scenes in Pakistan, have been described in detail and it's almost like listening to a friend because the author does not really mince words.
The writing is the highlight, and that's what kept me hooked to it till the end. It's smooth, very well structured and there are no lapses in the narrative.
However do not have high expectations in terms of literature and instead read it if you have a flair for real life family drama presented very attractively.
This book has plenty of inside dirt from the author's point of view, about her aunt Benazir Bhutto, uncle Asif Ali Zardari, and several other members of the family and the political reign in Pakistan. Having heard a few stories from my parents about the situation there, I could understand and identify the problems the characters face with each other. But this is not a literary masterpiece. It's just a sort-of-autobiography by Fatima Bhutto, dedicated to her father. The details of many events, such as the assassinations and changing political scenes in Pakistan, have been described in detail and it's almost like listening to a friend because the author does not really mince words.
The writing is the highlight, and that's what kept me hooked to it till the end. It's smooth, very well structured and there are no lapses in the narrative.
However do not have high expectations in terms of literature and instead read it if you have a flair for real life family drama presented very attractively.
August 27, 2018
Songs of Blood and Sword is a beautiful memoir by Fatima Bhutto in the memory of her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto and her grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
For a child to be born in exile in a highly political family—whose grandfather has been judicially murdered and his sons made to leave the country owing to a danger to their lives, and his daughter and wife arrested and tortured several times—who is observant and questioning of everything that goes on her life, it comes as no surprise when she decides to use her pen to give words to an untold story of her father who she has adored her whole life. Murtaza, for her daughter was an amazing father and an honest politician (when he later joined politics), who wanted to change the condition of his people back home. But in loving her father, Fatima overlooks facts—which is completely understandable given such a devotion for a person who you have looked up to all your life.
For a person who loves reading, I give five out of five to Ms. Bhutto for penning down the story of her family—feudal, revolutionary, troubled, separated, killed in cold blood—beautifully. However, for a person who has been politically aware since an early age and has been active in political literature of Pakistan, I feel that Fatima Bhutto misses facts, idealizes her father to the extent of worshiping him and conveniently forgets to mention a lot of realities of the politics of this country.
(Also add portraying often forgettable sibling rivalry to deep pangs of jealousy by the elder sister Benazir, who lacks a personality and charm, and is shy and thus jealous of her brothers who she is always threatened by as the real heirs of the Bhutto throne, and similar observations thrown here and there throughout the book).
For an international reader who does not have a background in Pakistani politics, Fatima Bhutto presents a perfect case for the Bhutto family. It’s also perhaps the reason why she is very popular in international media as an author and an active Bhutto heir. Same is not the case with Pakistan. As much as Fatima avoids Pakistani media, same goes the other way round too, with Pakistani media claiming her to be rather too dramatic.
Although I have my fair share of disagreements with the author on a number of things, such as her insistence that her father was the real Bhutto heir and thus deserved to take the place of her father while it was BB who went through the ordeal of jails, house arrests, torture and trauma of being in the country at the time the two brothers were living a free life in Europe and then in Afghanistan, often causing problems for the Party at home; her way of patriarchal thinking in terms of a man taking being the real heir (while neither Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nor her father Murtaza ever discriminated between sons and daughters) and the bearer of family name, often calling Benazir, Mrs. Zardari (only to mention a few); her book does provide an in depth (and often juicy) look into the bloody history of Pakistan (although biased), which may otherwise become too boring for a lot of people.
For a child to be born in exile in a highly political family—whose grandfather has been judicially murdered and his sons made to leave the country owing to a danger to their lives, and his daughter and wife arrested and tortured several times—who is observant and questioning of everything that goes on her life, it comes as no surprise when she decides to use her pen to give words to an untold story of her father who she has adored her whole life. Murtaza, for her daughter was an amazing father and an honest politician (when he later joined politics), who wanted to change the condition of his people back home. But in loving her father, Fatima overlooks facts—which is completely understandable given such a devotion for a person who you have looked up to all your life.
For a person who loves reading, I give five out of five to Ms. Bhutto for penning down the story of her family—feudal, revolutionary, troubled, separated, killed in cold blood—beautifully. However, for a person who has been politically aware since an early age and has been active in political literature of Pakistan, I feel that Fatima Bhutto misses facts, idealizes her father to the extent of worshiping him and conveniently forgets to mention a lot of realities of the politics of this country.
(Also add portraying often forgettable sibling rivalry to deep pangs of jealousy by the elder sister Benazir, who lacks a personality and charm, and is shy and thus jealous of her brothers who she is always threatened by as the real heirs of the Bhutto throne, and similar observations thrown here and there throughout the book).
For an international reader who does not have a background in Pakistani politics, Fatima Bhutto presents a perfect case for the Bhutto family. It’s also perhaps the reason why she is very popular in international media as an author and an active Bhutto heir. Same is not the case with Pakistan. As much as Fatima avoids Pakistani media, same goes the other way round too, with Pakistani media claiming her to be rather too dramatic.
Although I have my fair share of disagreements with the author on a number of things, such as her insistence that her father was the real Bhutto heir and thus deserved to take the place of her father while it was BB who went through the ordeal of jails, house arrests, torture and trauma of being in the country at the time the two brothers were living a free life in Europe and then in Afghanistan, often causing problems for the Party at home; her way of patriarchal thinking in terms of a man taking being the real heir (while neither Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nor her father Murtaza ever discriminated between sons and daughters) and the bearer of family name, often calling Benazir, Mrs. Zardari (only to mention a few); her book does provide an in depth (and often juicy) look into the bloody history of Pakistan (although biased), which may otherwise become too boring for a lot of people.
September 9, 2012
This book has preoccupied my mind since I started reading it 5 days ago.
Written from the perspective of a daughter who is born into a family rife with political associations and has suffered the loss of many members who have fallen prey to the "politics" of power at the hands of those who greed for it.
She introduces herself on the cover as a granddaughter to an executed man, a niece to a murdered uncle and assassinated aunt and daughter to an assassinated father. She takes us through the family's rise and fall to power in Pakistan sharing her own father's struggle as he was in exile for 16 years, his comeback and his death.
I find it hard to imagine what this family has suffered and though many dismiss their plight as a result of the political games they played - i feel that the most affected are the family who remain after their loved ones died - with questions unanswered and justice denied. The book brings out the human side of the suffering they all went through.
The author has been quite candid with sharing names, places, dates and incidents - and many of those mentioned were direct attackers causing her father's death - who still occupy seats of power in the ruling government of Pakistan today including the president.
Also helps one understand why Pakistan is in the pits today - because there is so much corruption that the whole country stands at the mercy of a government that only concerns itself with making a buck out of every transaction, and is creating policies and rules to save itself from any and every attempt of being blamed, crippling the country and bringing it to its knees.
Read it.
Written from the perspective of a daughter who is born into a family rife with political associations and has suffered the loss of many members who have fallen prey to the "politics" of power at the hands of those who greed for it.
She introduces herself on the cover as a granddaughter to an executed man, a niece to a murdered uncle and assassinated aunt and daughter to an assassinated father. She takes us through the family's rise and fall to power in Pakistan sharing her own father's struggle as he was in exile for 16 years, his comeback and his death.
I find it hard to imagine what this family has suffered and though many dismiss their plight as a result of the political games they played - i feel that the most affected are the family who remain after their loved ones died - with questions unanswered and justice denied. The book brings out the human side of the suffering they all went through.
The author has been quite candid with sharing names, places, dates and incidents - and many of those mentioned were direct attackers causing her father's death - who still occupy seats of power in the ruling government of Pakistan today including the president.
Also helps one understand why Pakistan is in the pits today - because there is so much corruption that the whole country stands at the mercy of a government that only concerns itself with making a buck out of every transaction, and is creating policies and rules to save itself from any and every attempt of being blamed, crippling the country and bringing it to its knees.
Read it.
May 15, 2019
'Songs of Blood and Sword' is a book about a daughter's love for her father and her search to uncover and understand the truth of his life and death. The book revolves around the deterioration of Bhutto dynasty and serves as a beautiful memoir.
Fatima Bhutto narrates real life events taking us back in the history of Bhutto family, a brief account of their forefathers followed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to the events until after Murtaza and Benazir's death. It is a powerful account of a dysfunctional family struggling to survive and the rivalry between a brother and sister as witnessed by Fatima Bhutto through the years. At certain points, the book does feel biased and almost hagiographic but every story has two sides and that's exactly the narrative this book gives.
There were a lot of events in history especially in the life of ZAB that I was unaware of and this book enlightened me. The rivalry between the Bhutto siblings; the ambitious Benazir and idealistic Murtaza, who was the only one who challenged status quo, is depicted in the narrative. This book made me see Benazir and her husband Zardari in a different light; almost as cold blooded murderers.
At one point in her book, she ask one of her father's dear friends if her family was truly the descendants of Rajput warriors because they tended to act like wild creatures and nothing felt more accurate.
All in all, Fatima Bhutto has beautifully penned it down. Her writing style and the way she describes events and pens down her emotions is captivating for the reader. The book is slow and a bit too detailed in certain areas but nonetheless an excellent read.
Fatima Bhutto narrates real life events taking us back in the history of Bhutto family, a brief account of their forefathers followed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to the events until after Murtaza and Benazir's death. It is a powerful account of a dysfunctional family struggling to survive and the rivalry between a brother and sister as witnessed by Fatima Bhutto through the years. At certain points, the book does feel biased and almost hagiographic but every story has two sides and that's exactly the narrative this book gives.
There were a lot of events in history especially in the life of ZAB that I was unaware of and this book enlightened me. The rivalry between the Bhutto siblings; the ambitious Benazir and idealistic Murtaza, who was the only one who challenged status quo, is depicted in the narrative. This book made me see Benazir and her husband Zardari in a different light; almost as cold blooded murderers.
At one point in her book, she ask one of her father's dear friends if her family was truly the descendants of Rajput warriors because they tended to act like wild creatures and nothing felt more accurate.
All in all, Fatima Bhutto has beautifully penned it down. Her writing style and the way she describes events and pens down her emotions is captivating for the reader. The book is slow and a bit too detailed in certain areas but nonetheless an excellent read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2010
I picked it up from the shelf in the bookstore and decided to take a risk and buy it since the comment on the cover said ''If there's anyone born to write this story, it is Fatima Bhutto''.
Since politics wasn't one of my interests until very recently, I have to admit that the name rang absolutely no bells. After realizing what it was about as I read through first few pages, I was almost going to give it up. Luckily, I didn't!
It was an extremely interesting journey through the Bhutto family history as well as the insight in Pakistani politics over the past few decades, and altough the subject is somewhat demanding, Fatima Bhutto managed to make 'painless'.
I tried to keep in mind that she was personally involved in the story and that she may not be objective on the matter, but nonetheless, I couldn't help being fascinated by her father's (and grandfhater's for that matter) vision of politics and the world in general.
If Zulfikar and Murtaza Bhutto really did try to change Pakistan the way it is described in the book, the world surely needs more politicians like them!
Since politics wasn't one of my interests until very recently, I have to admit that the name rang absolutely no bells. After realizing what it was about as I read through first few pages, I was almost going to give it up. Luckily, I didn't!
It was an extremely interesting journey through the Bhutto family history as well as the insight in Pakistani politics over the past few decades, and altough the subject is somewhat demanding, Fatima Bhutto managed to make 'painless'.
I tried to keep in mind that she was personally involved in the story and that she may not be objective on the matter, but nonetheless, I couldn't help being fascinated by her father's (and grandfhater's for that matter) vision of politics and the world in general.
If Zulfikar and Murtaza Bhutto really did try to change Pakistan the way it is described in the book, the world surely needs more politicians like them!
May 11, 2013
This is the story of the most illustrious political family of Pakistan. Being an Indian, I was excited to open the book. It offered me exactly what I had expected-the story from dawn to dusk of the Bhutto family. The narration was exactly as I had expected-Personal with every effort made to make it sound less personal, written as a matter-of-fact yet completely drenched in emotions.
Fatima draws out the contradictions of her life and her family without any effort to reason with them. The book reflects her attempts to reconcile with the world thrust upon her by birth. She knows she is specially placed, but somewhere, wishes it away. There is no wishing away the reality for anyone, and so, comes the book. While writing is a good way to let go one's inhibitions and make peace with oneself, it also needs a lot of concerted effort to deal with every detail of the past, the one you wish away, in a delicate manner, attempting to not weigh it in terms of the day, but that of the history of which they were a part. She seems to have done justice to her pursuit.
Hats-off!
Fatima draws out the contradictions of her life and her family without any effort to reason with them. The book reflects her attempts to reconcile with the world thrust upon her by birth. She knows she is specially placed, but somewhere, wishes it away. There is no wishing away the reality for anyone, and so, comes the book. While writing is a good way to let go one's inhibitions and make peace with oneself, it also needs a lot of concerted effort to deal with every detail of the past, the one you wish away, in a delicate manner, attempting to not weigh it in terms of the day, but that of the history of which they were a part. She seems to have done justice to her pursuit.
Hats-off!
February 8, 2012
Wow, what a riveting story if you are a Pakistani. The live between father and daughter made me cry a number of times. The inside details on the Bhutto family are invaluable. The only downside is that Fatima seems to present a very congenial picture of the feudals while maintaining that feudalism is wrong for the Pakistani society. She glosses over the elder Bhutto's career refusing to dig deeper into what went wrong. But I guess her main focus was on her story of her father and her. That bit of the story kept me moving throughout. A definite five stars. Doctor Jawad would be proud of her efforts.
April 27, 2025
I think as a Pakistani who was born in 1995 and wasn’t ‘conscious’ during a lot of the events that the book talks about, this was eye opening. Of course, since this is a memoir written by a grieving daughter it can be biased I trusted every word she wrote because of the tireless work I could see that had been put into the citations. Fatima Bhutto’s writing style was so easy to read, it was raw and powerful and helped me navigate the turbulent times our country has been through, from the eyes of the family in the middle of it all. Great read. Read it cover to cover.
June 14, 2017
Amazing excavation of a long and complicated political history of a family simultaneously rich, powerful, successful, inspiring and eventually failing, as all great dynasties are. Makes me realize how lucky India was as a country to have a long lasting respected leaders, and one overarching Nehru above all who the nation listened to. The sheer contrast between the two neighboring countries in the subsequent 60 odd years after independence isn't a testimony to the spirit of its peoples as often perceived by those ill-informed, but is one to the intricate relationship between systems of governance and those who aspire to being powerful and succeed in being so. Anyone who is of the opinion that Pakistan is a failed country would soon realize that it is one of those countries that has the uncanny ability to rise against all odds through intermittent displays of exuberance, much alike their lovable Cricket team.
May 31, 2011
A very interesting and informative book by Fatima who tells the story of her father, their personal life, and his family's political history. I liked her honesty and that she was upfront with her ideas, beliefs, and biases. Not many people have the courage, with the family history she had, to put all this information forward. The book is well structured starting with the incident of her father's assassination then going backwards to tell the story of the Buttos, her grandfather, her father and his siblings, to explain family background and the events leading to his death. She includes lots of personal stories and letters which makes politics easy to digest. It would be interesting to go and read her aunt's, Benazir, autobiography to evaluate the other side of the story.
November 8, 2010
I picked this becasue of an interest in Pakistan and I thougth it would help me to understand the political issues there more. From the beginning the books was a confusing tangle of people with similar names and it was clearly written from a single point of view by Bhutto, where everything her father did was right and everyone else was clearly wrong. In a situation which is so complex, I didnt want to spend the time to read this book and not get a more objective view. I usually finish every book I start, but in this case, I gave up.
July 16, 2014
Simpy loved it. tragic sad and beautifully written. its a story any reader will never forget..
takes you deep into pakistan's political world and its ugly truths.
takes you deep into pakistan's political world and its ugly truths.
December 18, 2020
In September 1996 a fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto hid in a windowless dressing room shielding her baby brother while shots rang out in the streets outside sword he family home in Karachi. What a scarry time this was for her family. This was the evening that her father, Murtaza, was murdered along with six of his associates. In December 2007 Benazir Bhutto, Fatima's aunt, and the woman she had publicly accused of ordering her father's murder, was assassinated in Rawalpindi. It was the latest in a long line of tragedies for one of the world's best known political dynasties. Songs of Blood and Sword tells the story of the Bhuttos, a family of rich feudal landlords who became powerbrokers in the newly created state of Pakistan; the epic tale of four generations of a family and the political violence that would destroy them. It is the history of a family and nation driven by murder, corruption, conspiracy and division, written by one who has lived it, in the heart of the storm. The history of this extraordinary family mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself, and the quest to find the truth behind her father's murder has led Fatima to the heart of her country's volatile political establishment. Finally Songs of Blood and Sword is about a daughter's love for her father and her search to uncover, and to understand, the truth of his life and death.
We have quite a few Goodreads friends that reside in or near the Pakistan area. This story and book fit right along so that we can understand.
Written wittly, well constructed with flavors of emotion, curiosity, bias, research, deep love and hate of Pakistani political arena. Things seems boring in the start, but as the story builds itself around villainous characters it seems interesting, feelings of fear and interest cross each other at occasions.
In the middle, words get lengthy slow, the writer critiques on policies such as policies, and mixes it up with post exile struggle n love affairs of his father & her childhood. The last part deals with the tragic ending of bhuttos. Dealing with that is especially hard for the family. Good book. Recommend....
We have quite a few Goodreads friends that reside in or near the Pakistan area. This story and book fit right along so that we can understand.
Written wittly, well constructed with flavors of emotion, curiosity, bias, research, deep love and hate of Pakistani political arena. Things seems boring in the start, but as the story builds itself around villainous characters it seems interesting, feelings of fear and interest cross each other at occasions.
In the middle, words get lengthy slow, the writer critiques on policies such as policies, and mixes it up with post exile struggle n love affairs of his father & her childhood. The last part deals with the tragic ending of bhuttos. Dealing with that is especially hard for the family. Good book. Recommend....
June 17, 2018
Book Review of Songs of Blood and Sword
by
Fatima Bhutto
Rating : 2.5 stars
How does one view the world around oneself? An apple that seems red to a human, may seem colourless to the same human's pet dog, and to an ant crawling nearby, the entire universe. One's view of the world or a part of it depends largely on where one is sitting, on the context or one's observations. With this abstract notion, let me start with Fatima Bhutto's book, Songs of Blood and Sword. Ms Bhutto's claim to now, till now, apart from an alleged torrid affair with George Clooney, is the violent history of her family though you might also see her contesting elections in the 2018 General Elections in Pakistan.
Bhutto's history of her family is centered on her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto and her grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Being from this powerful Pakistani family, does every word she utter is a gospel of truth? Far from it. Objective truth or facts have their own subjectivities. Does a soldier facing bullets on the battlefield know the entire truth, or is the academic researching on the same war fully aware of the truth? Everyone has his/ her own morsel of the truth, a half starved opinion that due to hubris, or lack of it, is projected as the entire truth.
Its like the proverbial elephant and the blind men, with each subjective touch of the individual indicating a different reality, true to that individual but not necessarily to itself. Accordingly, Fatima Bhutto's book can be said to be divided into two narratives, one perceptive and emotional while the other still emotional but comparatively well researched. Despite having received education from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London, incidentally the same college where I had an offer of completing my PhD with scholarship, in her narrative about Pakistan's foreign policy and wars with India, she adopts the partisan outlook of someone who has been fed rumours and propaganda all her life. But that is not to take away from her writing style, which is lucid and engaging especially in parts where she describes the life cycle of her father. Concerning historical distortions, people critique reviewers for over generalising distortions. Sample this:
"..... The catalyst for the war....passing of the Integration Bill by the Indian Parliament which converted the state of Jammu and Kashmir into a province of the Indian Union. Kashmiris, those Muslims who identified with Pakistan and not India, crossed the ceasefire line into the Indian-ruled area of Kashmir and began to engage in acts of sabotage....no war could be seen as any side's fault."
She goes on and on, proclaiming fake facts as truth. This is a book written not just by a bereaved daughter but also by a product of the Columbia University and SOAS. So this kind of 'factual innocence' doesn't sit well. She glosses over Op Gibraltar and Grand Slam , ZA Bhutto's unofficial coercing of Ayub Khan into a war with India justifying it on the basis of Indian armed forces' demoralisation at Chinese hands in 1962. In trying to setup ZA Bhutto as the ideal revolutionary, she fails to mention his role in the 1970 elections debacle, the fact that he refused to accept East Pakistani 'domination' over West Pakistan despite the Awami League winning an absolute majority in both the houses, going to the extent of threatening to break the legs of any politician sympathetic of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's cause.
The point is, lived history may be emotional, heart breaking, even beautiful and pure but it is always biased, coloured and generally defers to the person/ event being talked about.
Barring the first few pages, where she actually distorts history beyond belief, the rest of the book is an account of the life and times of Pakistan through her eyes and the eyes of her father. She calls to account the 'martyr' image of Benazir Bhutto, and the way she kowtowed to the military junta to come to power in 1988. She offers an alternative viewpoint of the role of the Bhutto brothers and their organisation Al Zulfiqar Organisation (AZO) and its hand in the PIA hijacking of 1981.
Fatima Bhutto makes it clear from the very start that she idolises her father and therefore what should not be expected out of her is a book critiquing him or anyone that she holds in high regards. Does it colour her version of events that followed? Maybe , maybe not. She does offer an interesting alternative viewpoint about the Bhutto sibling rivalry, in fact not even rivalry but the quest of the eldest (Benazir) to take what she felt was rightfully hers (reins of PPP and Pakistan itself).
Murtaza Bhutto, Fatima's father has been portrayed as a virtuous man, the ideal son, brother, father, lover etc etc. But compare Fatima's uncritical canonisation of her father with a dialogue attributed to him by Shyam Bhatia of Outlook magazine in an article titled 'A Strange Encounter with Murtaza Bhutto'. Shyam is a classmate of Murtaza Bhutto from Harvard.
" In Damascus that evening, as I brought out my reporter’s notebook, Murtaza spat out sheer venom about Benazir. ‘What did you say about that bitch?’ he asked.
‘Is this on the record?’ I inquired.
‘Yes, you can write what you want,’ he continued.
Uncertain about what he would say next, I excused myself for a few seconds and went to the other side of the bar where my Fleet Street colleagues were bunched together. One of them, Danny McGrory from the Daily Express, was a personal friend and had been best man at my wedding. My concern was to have an independent witness to the interview with Murtaza that was in progress and Danny—once I explained the situation—agreed to come over.
Minutes after Danny too had been given a generous dollop of Scotch, Murtaza continued. ‘I should be prime minister, not her,’ he declared. When asked why, he replied, ‘Because I’m the man, I’m my father’s son, I was his election agent in Larkana (Bhutto’s constituency), so obviously he wanted me to be his successor.’"
So its a travesty that a book so lucidly written, that manages to draw you in with the flow of writing can be so one-sided and weak. Fatima Bhutto has endured a lot, was close to her father and suffered through terrible agony upon losing her. Finally, the book ends up as a confused mishmash of lived experiences, personal histories and perceptions masquerading as political acumen.
by
Fatima Bhutto
Rating : 2.5 stars
How does one view the world around oneself? An apple that seems red to a human, may seem colourless to the same human's pet dog, and to an ant crawling nearby, the entire universe. One's view of the world or a part of it depends largely on where one is sitting, on the context or one's observations. With this abstract notion, let me start with Fatima Bhutto's book, Songs of Blood and Sword. Ms Bhutto's claim to now, till now, apart from an alleged torrid affair with George Clooney, is the violent history of her family though you might also see her contesting elections in the 2018 General Elections in Pakistan.
Bhutto's history of her family is centered on her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto and her grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Being from this powerful Pakistani family, does every word she utter is a gospel of truth? Far from it. Objective truth or facts have their own subjectivities. Does a soldier facing bullets on the battlefield know the entire truth, or is the academic researching on the same war fully aware of the truth? Everyone has his/ her own morsel of the truth, a half starved opinion that due to hubris, or lack of it, is projected as the entire truth.
Its like the proverbial elephant and the blind men, with each subjective touch of the individual indicating a different reality, true to that individual but not necessarily to itself. Accordingly, Fatima Bhutto's book can be said to be divided into two narratives, one perceptive and emotional while the other still emotional but comparatively well researched. Despite having received education from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London, incidentally the same college where I had an offer of completing my PhD with scholarship, in her narrative about Pakistan's foreign policy and wars with India, she adopts the partisan outlook of someone who has been fed rumours and propaganda all her life. But that is not to take away from her writing style, which is lucid and engaging especially in parts where she describes the life cycle of her father. Concerning historical distortions, people critique reviewers for over generalising distortions. Sample this:
"..... The catalyst for the war....passing of the Integration Bill by the Indian Parliament which converted the state of Jammu and Kashmir into a province of the Indian Union. Kashmiris, those Muslims who identified with Pakistan and not India, crossed the ceasefire line into the Indian-ruled area of Kashmir and began to engage in acts of sabotage....no war could be seen as any side's fault."
She goes on and on, proclaiming fake facts as truth. This is a book written not just by a bereaved daughter but also by a product of the Columbia University and SOAS. So this kind of 'factual innocence' doesn't sit well. She glosses over Op Gibraltar and Grand Slam , ZA Bhutto's unofficial coercing of Ayub Khan into a war with India justifying it on the basis of Indian armed forces' demoralisation at Chinese hands in 1962. In trying to setup ZA Bhutto as the ideal revolutionary, she fails to mention his role in the 1970 elections debacle, the fact that he refused to accept East Pakistani 'domination' over West Pakistan despite the Awami League winning an absolute majority in both the houses, going to the extent of threatening to break the legs of any politician sympathetic of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's cause.
The point is, lived history may be emotional, heart breaking, even beautiful and pure but it is always biased, coloured and generally defers to the person/ event being talked about.
Barring the first few pages, where she actually distorts history beyond belief, the rest of the book is an account of the life and times of Pakistan through her eyes and the eyes of her father. She calls to account the 'martyr' image of Benazir Bhutto, and the way she kowtowed to the military junta to come to power in 1988. She offers an alternative viewpoint of the role of the Bhutto brothers and their organisation Al Zulfiqar Organisation (AZO) and its hand in the PIA hijacking of 1981.
Fatima Bhutto makes it clear from the very start that she idolises her father and therefore what should not be expected out of her is a book critiquing him or anyone that she holds in high regards. Does it colour her version of events that followed? Maybe , maybe not. She does offer an interesting alternative viewpoint about the Bhutto sibling rivalry, in fact not even rivalry but the quest of the eldest (Benazir) to take what she felt was rightfully hers (reins of PPP and Pakistan itself).
Murtaza Bhutto, Fatima's father has been portrayed as a virtuous man, the ideal son, brother, father, lover etc etc. But compare Fatima's uncritical canonisation of her father with a dialogue attributed to him by Shyam Bhatia of Outlook magazine in an article titled 'A Strange Encounter with Murtaza Bhutto'. Shyam is a classmate of Murtaza Bhutto from Harvard.
" In Damascus that evening, as I brought out my reporter’s notebook, Murtaza spat out sheer venom about Benazir. ‘What did you say about that bitch?’ he asked.
‘Is this on the record?’ I inquired.
‘Yes, you can write what you want,’ he continued.
Uncertain about what he would say next, I excused myself for a few seconds and went to the other side of the bar where my Fleet Street colleagues were bunched together. One of them, Danny McGrory from the Daily Express, was a personal friend and had been best man at my wedding. My concern was to have an independent witness to the interview with Murtaza that was in progress and Danny—once I explained the situation—agreed to come over.
Minutes after Danny too had been given a generous dollop of Scotch, Murtaza continued. ‘I should be prime minister, not her,’ he declared. When asked why, he replied, ‘Because I’m the man, I’m my father’s son, I was his election agent in Larkana (Bhutto’s constituency), so obviously he wanted me to be his successor.’"
So its a travesty that a book so lucidly written, that manages to draw you in with the flow of writing can be so one-sided and weak. Fatima Bhutto has endured a lot, was close to her father and suffered through terrible agony upon losing her. Finally, the book ends up as a confused mishmash of lived experiences, personal histories and perceptions masquerading as political acumen.
May 7, 2025
I really really enjoyed this memoir
It was fascinating to know that this is a story about real people and their lives
Besides Pakistani politics has always been interesting to me
But it’s safe to say that don’t take this book as a history lesson, do your own research too
It was fascinating to know that this is a story about real people and their lives
Besides Pakistani politics has always been interesting to me
But it’s safe to say that don’t take this book as a history lesson, do your own research too
July 26, 2021
Haunting, beautiful and heartbreaking
August 2, 2022
The book is not just about Fatima Bhutto’s account of personal experiences and the chronicles of murderous executions of her scions, but it is also a lauding compilation of revealing reportage. She takes you into the history of Pakistani politics, the authoritative past of the Bhutto feudals, their powerful awakenings, the pains of exiles and personal lives. The leaves of the book are filled with compositions of a building Pakistan, its epochs of corruption, and the politics of vendetta of an important geo-strategic country in south Asia.
The title of the book is borrowed from Khosrow Golsurkhi’s poem ‘Poem of the Unknown’- the words speak of metaphors that affirm struggles and wailings of pain. ‘Songs of Blood and Sword’ is a tribute by a daughter to her murdered father, who she regarded as a true heir apparent to Pakistan People’s Party. It would have been an exhaustive research for the Afghan born poetess. After-all, she was writing about one the most influential families in the region and its politically ridden relation with the State of Pakistan.
‘If there is anyone born to write this story, it is Fatima Bhutto,’ says William Dalrymple. The book is filled with family epistles, political history, violence and prose churned out through interviews with acquaintances, coteries and foreign journalists from Europe and Asia. As a reader, the content of her memoir arouses attention. The author successfully fills the void of those boring moments which one encounters while reading an average memoir: the book is a finely penned work and serves as an important reference for political developments that have shaken Pakistan with time. I was also impressed with the way the substance of the book had been organised because it has likely helped in keeping the pace of the narrative.
The subject matter of the book is a must not only for a Bhutto buff, but also for researchers of politics - it was September 1996, when a fourteen year old Fatima hid herself in a windowless dressing room, with her little brother, when she heard that her father had been shot in 'Operation Clean Up' by the police in Karachi, near her residence. The book draws accusations of a significant, if not a damning evidence of her father being killed as a vindictive victim of Asif Ali Zardari and his aides. The narration of his death and the pain of the separation mentioned in the epilogue makes the book a distinctive tale penned by a brave journalist.
Importantly, the book speaks of an ideological shift of Bhuttos, the land warriors, to avowed Marxists. Since a young kid, she has been a witness to the power broking struggle of her family members, with the land they belong. In this book, Fatima Bhutto vouchsafes Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as an architect of constitutional reform and the father of foreign diplomacies for Pakistan. She also portrays him as the most important advisor to Murtaza in shaping his life. There are reading moments where Murtaza Bhutto’s tryst with progressive socialism, in emancipating the farmer class, labour unions, the tyrannies of Zia and his junta serve as important contentions for an edifying read. I don’t want to dwell much into the personal accounts of her family members, illustrated with attached portraits, which are so prevalent in memoirs, because I wrote this review on the basis of political calamities that have hit Pakistan and its relationship with the Bhutto family - that’s what makes this book as an important read to me.
What I took from the book was that it is the story of Fatima where she portrays her father as an unsung hero – that’s the main acquittal for Fatima Bhutto in writing this book. The narrative serves as a reminder to people who think that fearless writing for the pursuit of truth can’t create ripples of change. These candid attempts by an individual are sometimes dismissed as bias, but when things haven’t been reported or written, how can prejudice occur at the first place? It is for this reason we should give the author the benefit of doubt because she slips into a similar position. However, in context of recent interviews, Fatima has also expressed her changing viewpoint regarding recent demerits of dynastical politics ruling the region, and the need for meritocracy.
Going back to the book, the genre is mostly catered towards the watchers of politics and hailers of feminism, where every word coming from a woman serves as a purpose to equality. Fatima’s piece of work is part of this aspiring development, especially in places like South Asia, where emancipation coming from highly educated women, who are good orators, writers contribute towards building a society.
‘Songs of Blood and Sword’ should be marketed for good because the content of her authorship is honest and very pertinent, not only for the people of Pakistan, but also for the sympathisers of the Pakistani state, who want the country to be prosperous and strong. I found the book as a creditworthy research and a personal outrage against injustice. The book can definitely hold you, and it’s not a disappointment by any means.
The title of the book is borrowed from Khosrow Golsurkhi’s poem ‘Poem of the Unknown’- the words speak of metaphors that affirm struggles and wailings of pain. ‘Songs of Blood and Sword’ is a tribute by a daughter to her murdered father, who she regarded as a true heir apparent to Pakistan People’s Party. It would have been an exhaustive research for the Afghan born poetess. After-all, she was writing about one the most influential families in the region and its politically ridden relation with the State of Pakistan.
‘If there is anyone born to write this story, it is Fatima Bhutto,’ says William Dalrymple. The book is filled with family epistles, political history, violence and prose churned out through interviews with acquaintances, coteries and foreign journalists from Europe and Asia. As a reader, the content of her memoir arouses attention. The author successfully fills the void of those boring moments which one encounters while reading an average memoir: the book is a finely penned work and serves as an important reference for political developments that have shaken Pakistan with time. I was also impressed with the way the substance of the book had been organised because it has likely helped in keeping the pace of the narrative.
The subject matter of the book is a must not only for a Bhutto buff, but also for researchers of politics - it was September 1996, when a fourteen year old Fatima hid herself in a windowless dressing room, with her little brother, when she heard that her father had been shot in 'Operation Clean Up' by the police in Karachi, near her residence. The book draws accusations of a significant, if not a damning evidence of her father being killed as a vindictive victim of Asif Ali Zardari and his aides. The narration of his death and the pain of the separation mentioned in the epilogue makes the book a distinctive tale penned by a brave journalist.
Importantly, the book speaks of an ideological shift of Bhuttos, the land warriors, to avowed Marxists. Since a young kid, she has been a witness to the power broking struggle of her family members, with the land they belong. In this book, Fatima Bhutto vouchsafes Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as an architect of constitutional reform and the father of foreign diplomacies for Pakistan. She also portrays him as the most important advisor to Murtaza in shaping his life. There are reading moments where Murtaza Bhutto’s tryst with progressive socialism, in emancipating the farmer class, labour unions, the tyrannies of Zia and his junta serve as important contentions for an edifying read. I don’t want to dwell much into the personal accounts of her family members, illustrated with attached portraits, which are so prevalent in memoirs, because I wrote this review on the basis of political calamities that have hit Pakistan and its relationship with the Bhutto family - that’s what makes this book as an important read to me.
What I took from the book was that it is the story of Fatima where she portrays her father as an unsung hero – that’s the main acquittal for Fatima Bhutto in writing this book. The narrative serves as a reminder to people who think that fearless writing for the pursuit of truth can’t create ripples of change. These candid attempts by an individual are sometimes dismissed as bias, but when things haven’t been reported or written, how can prejudice occur at the first place? It is for this reason we should give the author the benefit of doubt because she slips into a similar position. However, in context of recent interviews, Fatima has also expressed her changing viewpoint regarding recent demerits of dynastical politics ruling the region, and the need for meritocracy.
Going back to the book, the genre is mostly catered towards the watchers of politics and hailers of feminism, where every word coming from a woman serves as a purpose to equality. Fatima’s piece of work is part of this aspiring development, especially in places like South Asia, where emancipation coming from highly educated women, who are good orators, writers contribute towards building a society.
‘Songs of Blood and Sword’ should be marketed for good because the content of her authorship is honest and very pertinent, not only for the people of Pakistan, but also for the sympathisers of the Pakistani state, who want the country to be prosperous and strong. I found the book as a creditworthy research and a personal outrage against injustice. The book can definitely hold you, and it’s not a disappointment by any means.
November 8, 2019
An amazing read. Such a compelling story yet so personal it’s heartwrenching. To be a witness to these events, her voice is probing but emotional. An important account of all that transpired with the Bhuttos. Read it to understand Pakistan’s political history, Sindhu culture and state of nation. I look forward to reading more of her work.
October 23, 2015
The short version - I loved it! It's an amazing account of resilience, ideals and above all, the love between a father and daughter. All this, amid blood and swords.
The long version - nah, not very long. I liked the way the book was structured, how the people and places intwertwined and made it a surreal journey through the most violent and remorseless history of Pakistan and it's politicians. I agree, there's another side to every story and I haven't read any from the enemy camp (Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari, etc.) but still...some things are incontrovertible. Like death.
All I knew about Pakistan's politics was this behemoth personality called Benazir Bhutto (and after her assassination, her husband Zardari) and nothing else. We were all probably in awe of the fact that a woman was at the helm of affairs in an Islamic state like Pakistan, that too at the age of 34. (Yeah, 34. I'm 34!) But I never knew about her brother, Murtaza Bhutto or the fact that he was killed in what seemed like a government-sanctioned encounter. I did not know about this charisma or his socialist ideals. We will never know what Pakistan would be now if he had been alive.
The book traces the history of Pakistan from the rise of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the fall of Murtaza, and eventually, Benazir herself. It's heavily biased against Benazir and her husband Zardari and I guess it's expected. But I'm still stupefied how Fatima Bhutto continues to live in the country, amid all those people in power who were responsible for her father's death. That's resilience of a different level. And courage too, for writing this book - I can imagine it would not have been easy given the political climate there. So more power to her!
I haven't read her fiction (In the shadow of the crescent moon), but I might just pick it up - I like her style and her prose. I liked how she's not overly filmi (for want of a better adjective) or verbose when describing events, people or places. I liked how she builds up to the event and quietly deals the blow.
When I finished the book, sadness aside, I felt a mild relief as if I've finally come out of Pakistan and their blood and swords.
The long version - nah, not very long. I liked the way the book was structured, how the people and places intwertwined and made it a surreal journey through the most violent and remorseless history of Pakistan and it's politicians. I agree, there's another side to every story and I haven't read any from the enemy camp (Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari, etc.) but still...some things are incontrovertible. Like death.
All I knew about Pakistan's politics was this behemoth personality called Benazir Bhutto (and after her assassination, her husband Zardari) and nothing else. We were all probably in awe of the fact that a woman was at the helm of affairs in an Islamic state like Pakistan, that too at the age of 34. (Yeah, 34. I'm 34!) But I never knew about her brother, Murtaza Bhutto or the fact that he was killed in what seemed like a government-sanctioned encounter. I did not know about this charisma or his socialist ideals. We will never know what Pakistan would be now if he had been alive.
The book traces the history of Pakistan from the rise of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the fall of Murtaza, and eventually, Benazir herself. It's heavily biased against Benazir and her husband Zardari and I guess it's expected. But I'm still stupefied how Fatima Bhutto continues to live in the country, amid all those people in power who were responsible for her father's death. That's resilience of a different level. And courage too, for writing this book - I can imagine it would not have been easy given the political climate there. So more power to her!
I haven't read her fiction (In the shadow of the crescent moon), but I might just pick it up - I like her style and her prose. I liked how she's not overly filmi (for want of a better adjective) or verbose when describing events, people or places. I liked how she builds up to the event and quietly deals the blow.
When I finished the book, sadness aside, I felt a mild relief as if I've finally come out of Pakistan and their blood and swords.
September 4, 2016
A daughter's mourning for her father. After having read her fictional book I thought it would be worth giving her memoir a go, even though I wasn't a fan of her other work. But as part of a major political dynasty in Pakistan it sounded like she would have some fascinating insights to her family. This book recounts her attempt to uncover the truth of her father's murder.
The book is a jumble. I'll admit that I only have basic knowledge of Pakistan, her family, etc. She certainly wasn't obligated to write a 101-textbook about her family, her country, etc. but this book was immensely confusing. It seemed at first it would settle down as she recounts fleeing and hiding in a closet with her baby brother as shots rang out outside her home. She would soon learn her father had been murdered. This was quite harrowing to read and it seemed we were going to get right into it.
Instead it's a jumble of people, places, events, etc. that had me lost immediately. I think part of the problem is that it's really a book for someone who is much more familiar with her story and her family's story. I also think that the book is less about finding out about her father's killer(s) but more about her grieving and loss. Which could be a part of the whole story but it just felt like this was her trying to work through her feelings about her father's murder and the loss she felt, rather than trying to tell the story of the investigation.
It was hard to know how objective this account was and reading other reviews confirm that it's a highly slanted POV. Unlike other reviewers though I think this is understandable. This is a daughter mourning her and all what might have been. He might have just been as terrible and corrupt as the rest of the family when it came to politics but we have no way of knowing and that possibility was completely denied to her.
If you're curious it certainly wouldn't be bad, especially if you're interested in her perspective and have knowledge/interest in Pakistan. But I wouldn't go out of my way to hunt down this book either. Library or bargain buy.
The book is a jumble. I'll admit that I only have basic knowledge of Pakistan, her family, etc. She certainly wasn't obligated to write a 101-textbook about her family, her country, etc. but this book was immensely confusing. It seemed at first it would settle down as she recounts fleeing and hiding in a closet with her baby brother as shots rang out outside her home. She would soon learn her father had been murdered. This was quite harrowing to read and it seemed we were going to get right into it.
Instead it's a jumble of people, places, events, etc. that had me lost immediately. I think part of the problem is that it's really a book for someone who is much more familiar with her story and her family's story. I also think that the book is less about finding out about her father's killer(s) but more about her grieving and loss. Which could be a part of the whole story but it just felt like this was her trying to work through her feelings about her father's murder and the loss she felt, rather than trying to tell the story of the investigation.
It was hard to know how objective this account was and reading other reviews confirm that it's a highly slanted POV. Unlike other reviewers though I think this is understandable. This is a daughter mourning her and all what might have been. He might have just been as terrible and corrupt as the rest of the family when it came to politics but we have no way of knowing and that possibility was completely denied to her.
If you're curious it certainly wouldn't be bad, especially if you're interested in her perspective and have knowledge/interest in Pakistan. But I wouldn't go out of my way to hunt down this book either. Library or bargain buy.
January 29, 2014
Fatima Bhutto, grandaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who served as President of Pakistan and later as Prime Minister, and niece of Benazir Bhutto of more recent memory, writes informatively and passionately of her country's political history, from her unique perspective. With a grandfather deposed by and effectively executed (via the Supreme Court) by a man he had promoted, General Zia ul Haq, an activist and politician father - Murtaza Bhutto - mortally wounded by police in a staged "shootout" outside his home, and with her aunt Benazir Bhutto assasinated, this is a particularly bloody story, as reflected in the title.
The book focuses a lot on the author's father and her relationship with him. She has travelled widely, interviewing many people who were able to fill in gaps in her father's history.
Before reading this book I was woefully ignorant of Pakistan's history, with only snippets, by-products as it were of reading about Indian history and about the recent/current wars in Afghanistan.
Fatima Bhutto is a journalist, with a heavy vested interest in how her family history is read and strongly critical views of the current regime (she is not alone in that!) In other words, she is biased, but to be fair is not pretending otherwise. That said, and with the disclaimer above about my ignorance of the country's history, I feel she has done a good job of providing a lively and often deeply disturbing picture of this troubled country.
It's a page turner.
One thing reading the book and then doing some independent checking has done is to disabuse me of my idea that Benazir Bhutto was some sort of secular saint or a martyr to democracy. Her widower, Asif Zardari, President till last year, seems to be, in the American phrase "a piece of work". The extent of the kickbacks enjoyed by him and his late spouse is quite breathtaking. Pity the poor people of Pakistan!
Reading this book has inspired me to pick up some more books on Pakistan from the local library.
The book focuses a lot on the author's father and her relationship with him. She has travelled widely, interviewing many people who were able to fill in gaps in her father's history.
Before reading this book I was woefully ignorant of Pakistan's history, with only snippets, by-products as it were of reading about Indian history and about the recent/current wars in Afghanistan.
Fatima Bhutto is a journalist, with a heavy vested interest in how her family history is read and strongly critical views of the current regime (she is not alone in that!) In other words, she is biased, but to be fair is not pretending otherwise. That said, and with the disclaimer above about my ignorance of the country's history, I feel she has done a good job of providing a lively and often deeply disturbing picture of this troubled country.
It's a page turner.
One thing reading the book and then doing some independent checking has done is to disabuse me of my idea that Benazir Bhutto was some sort of secular saint or a martyr to democracy. Her widower, Asif Zardari, President till last year, seems to be, in the American phrase "a piece of work". The extent of the kickbacks enjoyed by him and his late spouse is quite breathtaking. Pity the poor people of Pakistan!
Reading this book has inspired me to pick up some more books on Pakistan from the local library.
March 16, 2013
I'm having trouble getting engaged with this book. I want to learn more about Pakistan history and culture, but this book hasn't grabbed me. I think the author plunges too quickly into the history of the Bhutto men and politics rather than focusing on her own childhood and her own relationship with her father. By page 70 I'm still disengaged partly, I think, because she hasn't helped me understand why her biological mother is in the US and why her relationship with her father is so very tight. She seems to have a very good relationship with her step-mother, too, but we haven't been given any reason to understand what binds them and why ... and for me, there's something always off-putting about male-centric cultures. Many times she's mentioned the stigma attached to relatives giving birth to girls. I need more context to read things like this. I want to be empathetic. Instead it rankles and I can't get past these little parts and into the bulk of the story. Sigh. US bad, Bhuttos progressive and good.
February 17, 2011
I thought this book offered a good background on Pakistani Politics. I was not aware of the different parties and regimes in Pakistan, and I felt that the author did a good job explaining what happened during the time period her family members were in power. I think I also enjoyed the book more because it was written by someone close to my age so I was able to get a clearer picture of what was going on. The only thing I disliked about the book was the way she didn't write the book in a chronological order. She would go back and forth during the years of her life. She would not stay in a time frame for long and randomly skip forward or backwards to a memory, I found that really confusing. Also I felt that maybe she should have mentioned the good things that her aunt Benazir did for Pakistan. When she only talked badly about her it just made her seem more childish than she should have portrayed for herself. Overall a great book for learning about the history of Pakistani politics.
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