There are several species of the Fireback pheasant, the most common of which is the Siamese, which inhabits parts of Siam.

While Hanif uses the known historical fact of Zia's mid-air death to chart out a dark comedy about Pakistani politics and paranoia and the madness of its leaders, anyone remotely suffering from aviatophobia should feel far more comfortable knowing that Zia, or anyone of his reputation, is highly unlikely to be on board their plane.

He would probably have a head full of locks. Who has time to be pretty when people are hurting? Crying. Shiting on themselves trying to beat heroin.

[…] although the wagon wheels perpetually flung up rivers of red sand, and she travelled in a column of whirling ruddy dust, the sweet perfumes of newly cudded grass mingled with it, mile after mile, as if the four-divided stomachs of the great oxen were filled with nothing but concentrated memories of hours of grazing along the water heavy vleis.