Fathers and sons: ‘Night of Power’ by Anar Ali reviewed by Latha Anantharaman

Binding the fractured narrative are intense feelings of fear and isolation

To the devout, the Night of Power, Lailatul Qadr, is the holiest night of the year, their prayers on that night going much farther than on others. Layla prays at the jamatkhana in Calgary with her fellow Ismailis, seeking peace of mind and relief from loneliness after her son Ashrif’s long-awaited and too-short visit. She wishes her husband, Mansoor, had come with her, but he has laughed her off, valuing community as little as he values religion. Later that night, Mansoor is found in a field, frozen and nearly dead.

Mansoor has always been haunted by Visram P. Govindji, his now sepia-tinted father, nailed to the wall in an ivory three-piece suit and gold pocket watch, and prone to jumping out of the frame to mock him and knock him to the ground.

Visram P. Govindji left Gujarat empty-handed to build a dry goods empire in Uganda. Mansoor, having left Uganda empty-handed, has built a tiny dry-cleaning shop in Calgary, but he dreams of a new empire that he and his son, Ashrif, will rule together. As soon as his wife stops fussing over lunch, he plans to impress Ashrif with his business plan.

The encounter between father and son is painful to read. Their egos prevent any kind of mutual understanding, and each man underestimates the other.

In telling the stories of Mansoor, Layla and Ashrif in Night of Power , shifting from present to past to deep past, Anar Ali seems to break up her narrative more than needed. But she is mirroring the fragmented memories of her characters. By holding back details of Mansoor and Layla’s marriage, she shows us how a man might forget the day he slammed his fist into a woman’s face. Mansoor, driving through the snow, wonders why or when his son stopped speaking to him, and why his wife shuts him out. Weighed down with delusions, his last night is a night of helplessness.

There are no visible flourishes in Ali’s prose. It is clear and powerful. By the first two pages, she has us feeling cold isolation and fear. The young Ashrif and his reviving love ultimately take the novel toward a more sunny future, but the frozen Mansoor remains at the book’s heart.

The writer is author of Three Seasons: Notes from a Country Year.

Night of Power; Anar Ali, Vintage, ₹499