Night Of the Golden Butterfly: Islam Quintet 5

Completing an epic panorama that began in fifteenth-century Moorish Spain, Night of the Golden Butterfly moves between the cities of the twenty-first century, from Lahore to London, from Paris to Beijing. The narrator is rung one morning and reminded that he owes a debt of honour. The creditor is Mohammed Aflatun - known as Plato-an irascible but gifted painter living in a Pakistan where "human dignity has become a wreckage." Plato, who once specialized in stepping back into the limelight, now wants his life story written.

Night of the Golden Butterfly reveals Ali in full flight, at once imaginative and intelligent, satirical and stimulating.