History Literature / ACaseOfExplodingMangoes

''A Case of Exploding Mangoes'' is a 2008 novel by Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif. In the final months before his [[TruthInTelevision suspicious death by plane crash]], Pakistani dictator General Zia ul-Haq grows increasingly paranoid. Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force junior officer, meanwhile finds himself being interrogated after his close friend Obaid dies while stealing a plane from the base at which both are training. Features a very short cameo by OsamaBinLaden.

'''''A Case of Exploding Mangoes''''' is a 2008 novel by Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif. In the final months before his [[TruthInTelevision suspicious death by plane crash]], Pakistani dictator General Zia ul-Haq grows increasingly paranoid. Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force junior officer, meanwhile finds himself being interrogated after his close friend Obaid dies while stealing a plane from the base at which both are training. Features a very short cameo by OsamaBinLaden.

'''''A Case of Exploding Mangoes''''' is a 2008 novel by Pakistani writer Creator/MohammedHanif. In the final months before his [[TruthInTelevision suspicious death by plane crash]], Pakistani dictator General Zia ul-Haq grows increasingly paranoid. Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force junior officer, meanwhile finds himself being interrogated after his close friend Obaid dies while stealing a plane from the base at which both are training. Features a very short cameo by OsamaBinLaden.

!!''A Case of Exploding Mangoes'' provides exampels of the following tropes:

* BlindSeer: Blind Zainab, despite nobody -- including here -- realizing that she's coincidently done this.

* DeathIsDramatic: Holds true completely, unusual in that the book is written realistically. [[spoiler: The two minor deaths - Secretary General and the spy working for the ISI - are disposed of relatively cleanly. Zia's bodyguard dies while skydiving, splatting dramatically. Colonel Shigri's death, though glances over to some extent, is very dramatic. Finally, almost all the major characters die in a very dramatic plane crash at the end of the book.]]
* DisgustingPublicToilet: Shigri has an aversion to unclean toilets. [[spoiler: This is later used to torture him, by forcing him to spend the night in a particarly filthy latrine. Shigri forces himself to spend the entire night standing.]]

* KickTheDog: Major Kilani gets to do this with [[spoiler:Ali Shigri's prisonmate, known only as Secretary General. Additionally, he claims to ''be'' Ali Shigri [[InstantDeathBullet right before he shoots]], leading to Shigri feeling guilty that Secretary General things he betrayed him]].

* TheStarscream: Atleast General Akhtar and General Beg seem to be spoiling to replace General Zia as President by the end of the book.

* YouKilledMyFather: Ali Shigri's entire motivation

'''A Case Of Exploding Mangoes''' is a 2008 novel by Pakistani writer MohammedHanif. In the final months before his [[TruthInTelevision suspicious death by plane crash]], Pakistani dictator General Zia ul-Haq grows increasingly paranoid. Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force junior officer, meanwhile finds himself being interrogated after his close friend Obaid dies while stealing a plane from the base at which both are training. Features a very short cameo by OsamaBinLaden.

!!! Features the following tropes:
* BlindSeer: Blind Zainab, despite nobody - including here - realizing that she's coincidently done this.

* HoYay: Many of the insults bandied about - particularly involving the relationship between Ali Shigri and his roommate Obaid - involve accusations of homosexuality [[spoiler: subverted when we discover that the two are in fact lovers]].

* TortureCellar: Under the Lahore fort. [[spoiler: Ali Shigri is briefly kept in one, and perfunctorily beaten up - the torturer is specifically told to not leave any permanent marks. His friend, Obaid, is [[PastVictimShowcase not treated quite as well]].]]

* PastVictimShowcase: [[spoiler: Obaid, after being discovered alive halfway through the book. He has been tortured by having his face burned with an iron and having some of his fingernails extracted.]]

* TortureCellar: Under the Lahore fort. [[spoiler: Ali Shigri is briefly kept in one, and perfunctorily beaten up - the torturer is specifically told to not leave any permanent marks. His friend, Obaid, is [[NotVeryPrettyNowIsHe not treated quite as well]].]]

* NotVeryPrettyNowIsHe: [[spoiler: Obaid, after being discovered alive halfway through the book. He has been tortured by having his face burned with an iron and having some of his fingernails extracted.]]

* [=~You Can't Fight Fate~=]: The book opens with General Zia having a premonition of his death. It ends with his death.

'''A Case Of Exploding Mangoes''' is a 2008 novel by Pakistani writer MohammedHanif. In the final months before his [[TruthInTelevision suspicious death by plane crash]], Pakistani dictator General Zia ul-Haq grows increasingly paranoid. Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force junior officer, meanwhile finds himself being interrogated after his close friend Obaid dies while stealing a plane from the base at which both are training. [[spoiler: Eventually we learn that Shigri is himself planning to assassinate Zia in retaliation for having [[ColonelBadass Colonel Shigri]], Ali's highly recognized father, [[NeverSuicide commit suicide]] after destroying a large sum of money in a fit of despondency. The book climaxes as several different assassination attempts - and one independent, but possibly invoked, medical emergency - converge at the same time to ensure the President's death.]] Features a very short cameo by OsamaBinLaden.

* StandardRedshirtProcedure: Inverted, in that the writer was himself a pilot with the Pakistan Air Force. Shigri's experiences at MilitaryAcademy should therefore be reasonably accurate.

* ChekovsGun (really, ChekovsCurse): [[spoiler: Blind Zainab curses General Zia to be eaten alive by worms when she hears that she is being moved to a solitary confinement at another prison. A fairly straightforward curse, nobody comments on it, except the writer, who mentions in passing that curses only work when spoken to crows with filled stomach. Zainab has just fed a crow, who flies off and out of the story, reappearing only at the end of the book to be involved in two separate attempts to kill Zia.]]