Staring into the hideous face of evil and illustrating the fragility of courage, this tale centers on Kamal, an East Pakistani who is born without a mouth and tongue. Rescued and educated by Abbas Miah, his village’s schoolteacher, he soon learns to keep his ability to read and write a secret from those who condemn him for his disfigurement. When news of West Pakistan’s genocidal campaign in the East reaches his village, he hesitates in joining the resistance, bringing to light the gap between how he is perceived by others and his true abilities, which proves both his torment and his salvation. Liberal-minded and pacifist, Abbas Miah soon decides to take his family and a few select villagers into the distant flood plains of Bangladesh to wait out the conflict. Before they can set sail, Miah’s wife and hundreds of villagers are slaughtered and the boat instead departs with Kamal, Miah, and a motley crew of survivors. Gritty and heartfelt, this novel explores the capacity for true community amidst a religious obsession with purity and the urgent need to define who is kin in the creation of a new nation state.