Black Wings

reviews

Sehba Sarwar is an instinctive storyteller. The power of childhood stories and Laila's ability to transmute minor incidents into enchanting tales for children and endow them with the supernatural, is central to the plot… Black Wings is a promising debut by a writer with an ability to suggest and explore emotional complexity.  —Muneeza Shamsie, Newsline

The story is a mix of cultures smudged together and put across on a canvas that portrays the normal lives of Pakistanis living abroad in the United States of America. Who better to tell the tale than Sehba herself. Living in Houston, Texas, she binds the tales of Yasmeen and Laila with the magical myths from the northern hill station of Hawagali in Pakistan and the everyday life of Houston, Texas… Stands out as a must read!  —Arun Reginald, Chowk

Black Wings is a welcome addition to the expanding list of English fiction from Pakistan. The tale of haunting family secrets embedded in the mountains in Pakistan and in Yasmeen's mind is told skillfully. She [Yasmeen] juggles her work-life, home-life and love-life in America, tackling truths and half-truths when she meets her mother after a long sojourn and travelling back to Karachi and to Hawagali, to unravel the mystery of her childhood and youth in Pakistan.  —Rumana Husain, Dawn

Black Wings, as its title suggests, is about one woman “setting herself free” through acknowledging her dark past.  —Mahim Maher, The Friday Times