The Wasted Vigil (42 page)

Authors: Nadeem Aslam

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nadeem Aslam was born in Pakistan and now lives in England. He is the author of two previous novels:
Maps for Lost Lovers,
winner of the Kiriyama Prize; and
Season of the Rainbirds,
winner of the Betty Trask Award and the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award.
Seasons of the Rainbirds
was also short-listed for the Whitbread Best First Novel Award and the Mail on Sunday/John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial, and long-listed for the Booker Prize. Aslam is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship.

ALSO BY NADEEM ASLAM

Maps for Lost Lovers

Season of the Rainbirds

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2008 by Nadeem Aslam

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.aaknopf.com

Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Limited, London, and in Canada by Bond Street Books, an imprint of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

ANVIL PRESS POETRY: Excerpt from “Note on the Terazije Gallows, 1941” from
Vasko Popa: Collected Poems,
translated by Anne , revised and expanded by Francis R. Jones (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1997). Reprinted by permission of Anvil Press Poetry.

JOHNSON & ALCOCK LTD.: Excerpt from an untitled poem by Yevgeny Vinokurov from
Post-War Russian Poetry,
edited and translated by Daniel Weissbort, copyright © 1974 by Daniel Weissbort. Reprinted by permission of Johnson & Alcock Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aslam, Nadeem.
The wasted vigil / by Nadeem Aslam.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
1. Afghanistan—Social life and customs—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9540.9.A83W37 2008
823’.914—dc22
2008017772

This is a work of fiction. The characters and organisations depicted in it are either the author’s creation or are used fictitiously. No resemblance is intended to any persons living or dead, to any organisations past or present. When a fictitious character is present at a real event—for example, David Town at the Islamabad embassy siege in chapter three, or the child Casa at the burning of the Ojhri Camp ammunitions depot in chapter six—the characterisation and description of the event are fictitious.