It should come as no surprise that a novel with the title This Is Where the Serpent Lives would involve characters involved in treacherous behavior. And that’s exactly what readers get in this new work from Pakistani-American author Daniyal Mueenuddin, whose 2009 story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was a Pulitzer finalist.
Mueenuddin moves seamlessly among three distinct stories that span more than half a century. One involves Yazid, who, at age 3 or 4 in the early 1950s, is living on the streets of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, before he is adopted by a man who runs a food stall. Yazid, a “romantic soul,” has hopes of “discovering himself a child of some minister or prince.” Instead, he becomes a chauffeur to the Atars, a family that owns much of the land in the region.
The elder Atar son, Hisham, is a slick character who “always glittered and made the right moves.” He studied in the U.S., where he met fellow student Shahnaz, who became his wife. Back in Lahore, Hisham wins his father’s Parliament seat and expands the family business. Shahnaz, meanwhile, manages the family home, keeping an eye on the servants and the finances.
Into this mix comes Saqib, the son of the Atars’ head gardener. When Hisham develops a get-even-richer scheme to plant vegetables in plastic greenhouse tunnels and build an underground infrastructure with “more tunnels than anyone but God,” he taps Saqib to oversee the operation. The allure of financial chicanery, however, proves too tempting for Saqib, leading to tragic results.
Mueenuddin brilliantly exploits the narrative possibilities inherent in the tension between lower and upper classes throughout This Is Where the Serpent Lives. Like an actual serpent, this smart, satisfying novel coils and slithers along unpredictable, winding paths. Only the most prescient readers will be able to guess where it’s going and where it will end up.