Chapter 1. The Bazaar of Storytellers

Don’t thank God it’s Friday, especially if you happen to be in Pakistan or in the troubled parts of the Middle East. For Muslims, Friday is supposed to be a day of rest and atonement. In Pakistan, though, it is anything but. Friday is the preferred day for suicide bombers to attack others in markets, mosques, and streets. Statistically speaking, the odds of one dying in a suicide bomb blast are much higher on Friday than on any other day.

As I write these words on September 18, 2015, a Friday, Taliban militants have stormed a Pakistan Air Force base in Badaber, a suburb of Peshawar, which is a fabled town in the northwest of Pakistan. The attack left 20 civilians and officers dead. Also killed were the 13 ...

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