Midnight's Furies

An NPR Best Book of 2015 • An Amazon Best Book of 2015: History • A Seattle Times  Best Book of 2015 •A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2015  Finalist for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award   “[A] fast-moving and highly readable account of the violence that accompanied that partition…In its finest moments, Midnight's Furies is the story of what happens when a composite society comes apart.”  –The New York Times Book Review “[A]n engaging and incisive contribution to the vast literature on partition and its aftermath. Mr. Hajari writes with grace, precision and an unerring eye for detail. ‘Midnight’s Furies’ is the best of recent offerings.” –Wall Street Journal   "A pacey new narrative history of Partition which makes the complex and tragic story of the great divide into a pageturner: no mean feat." –Guardian,  Best Summer Reads 2015 “A clear, accessible and compelling account of the events during partition… gifted storytelling. It is through his vivid description of small moments that Mr Hajari transforms an overwhelming event into an intimate experience...a gripping, skillfully crafted account of an awful period of South Asian history. It deserves a wide audience.”  –The Economist "It has often been said that this is the golden age of nonfiction books. As if to prove the validity of that statement, Nisid Hajari has offered us Midnight's Furies, a compelling read, both dramatic and suspenseful . . . With the sensibilities of a novelist, Hajari artfully draws portraits of the various historical personalities involved, making the book thoroughly engaging." –Seattle Times   "Hajari explores the roots of this tension in a beautifully written, deeply intelligent book about that crucial moment when Britain once again drew bad borders with calamitous consequences."  –Fareed Zakaria, CNN "[A] fast-paced new narrative history of partition and its aftermath . . . One of [the book's] virtues is its more balanced portrait of Jinnah." –William Dalrymple, The New Yorker   "Hajari’s book is a superb and highly readable account of not just the mayhem, but the political machinations that preceded Partition, including the three-way negotiations between Britain and the leaders of what were to become India and Pakistan."  –The New York Review of Books "Hajari offers a ringside view of history with compelling psychological portrayals of those who made it . . . The politics of 1947-48 is so chillingly contemporary that it induces a sense of deja vu." –Times of India   "[Hajari] has a riveting story to tell and he tells it well . . . The strength of this book is in its narrative, its marshalling of facts, and its objectivity in presenting them . . . And Hajari's fine ear for dialogue seldom lets him down." –The Wire (India)   "[Hajari] frames the events surrounding Partition like a Greek tragedy, with epic, larger-than-life figures . . . [He] succeeds in vividly depicting the psychological scars that have dogged Pakistan and India." –Shelf Awareness   "A well-researched tale of the last years of colonial rule on the Subcontinent . . . We could well be in the midst of a deadly thriller; Hajari maintains a tension t —

NISID HAJARI is the Asia editor for Bloomberg View. Prior to Bloomberg, he spent a decade at Newsweek as Asia editor, foreign editor, and eventually coeditor at the top of the masthead. He has appeared frequently as a commentator on foreign affairs on NPR, NBC, and CNN, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.