"I've told you before, and I will tell you again, if you are unable to read the Holy Book you will be punished." The teacher's face was a mask of anger. Born in 1975 in the UK to a Pakistani father and an English mother, Alexander Khan's life took a tragic turn at age three when his father took him to Pakistan, leading to a heartbreaking separation from his mother. Believing she abandoned them, he later learns she was misinformed about his fate. After three years, Alex returns to England, but his father vanishes again, leaving him with a cruel stepmother and her brother. Seen as an outsider by both white and Pakistani peers, Alex feels lost and alone. Following his father's unexpected death, he is sent back to Pakistan to live with relatives and learn how to be a "good Muslim." In this hostile environment, Alex realizes the true meaning of being orphaned. Abandoned and unheard, he faces a harrowing ordeal when kidnapped by his own family and sent to a fundamentalist Madrassa near the Afghanistan border. This compelling narrative captures the struggles of a boy caught between two cultures, desperately seeking his place in a world that has shattered his sense of belonging.
