Culture | New fiction

A father-son relationship animates Taymour Soomro’s debut novel

“Other Names for Love” is a skilful depiction of family ties and memory

Horse riding on beautiful landscape and mountain at sunset.

“The father, the son. This is the question, isn’t it?” So says Rafik to his child, Fahad, at the outset of Taymour Soomro’s debut novel. The relationship between father and son is one of the dominant themes of “Other Names for Love”. The fraught dynamic between Rafik and Fahad is also one of the key sources of tension in the book—an accomplished work which spans years and explores desire, inheritance and the power of memory.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Our last summer”

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