Title: Circle of Fire, Book 1, In Pakistan
Author: Andrew Anzur Clement
Date: 2024
Quote: "I moved...to Karachi, with my uncle, to work as servants for two gora families."
This series of recent historical fiction is a dystopia in real life: it's set in present-time Afghanistan, so torn by civil war that nobody can trust anybody. Hafizullah, son of a Taliban leader, and Jan, son of a Polish defense contractor, and Kelly, daughter of an American contractor, aren't friends at the beginning of the story, though on the second or third page Hafizullah describes Jan as having become "closer than a friend, more like a brother" before it's done. Hafizullah resents being a servant even though it turns out to be his cover in a spy operation, and Jan probably is the arrogant gora (allied foreign) jackass Hafizullah calls him. Kelly has an immune deficiency condition and is sheltered and overprotected, though she turns out to be brave and tough. In the course of this story Hafizullah will marry a girl called Zlaikha, also brave and tough; she and Kelly will start to bond by the end of this story, after all of them have spent a lot of time trekking through the desert and have watched their fathers or father-substitutes die. None of them seems close to their mothers, which is probably intentional; at least readers don't have to watch the characters watch their mothers die.
Many teenagers like grim, bitter stories that make the reader feel tough. Well, this is one. I'm not a big fan of dystopian fiction but there's something to be said for gritty stories of dystopian reality.
What you won't like is that this is only Book 1 of a longish series and you'll have to read the other volumes to know how the characters get to where they are when Hafizullah starts narrating the first chapter of this book.
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