In search of lux et veritas

In the Light of What We Know is the debut novel of Zia Haider Rahman, an investment banker turned civil rights lawyer turned writer.
Haider writes about the complicated lives of his two central characters, Zafar and his friend. The latter being the unnamed narrator of the story. The two main characters first cross paths at Oxford University while studying mathematics.
Zafar comes from the backstreets of London, his father 'the help' as Zafar describes him. The narrator, whose name is never revealed, is the grandchild of a former Pakistani diplomat; his parents are wealthy citizens belonging to the elite class.
This wide social difference between the two friends sets the tone of the book as the narrator tries to patch up the story of what Zafar has been up to between his sudden disappearance eight years ago before turning up at his friend's house one fine day.
The two friends are brilliant mathematicians, the narrator having moved on to become an investment banker, alas a rogue one, and Zafar prodding the threads of society as a lawyer and then development 'adviser'.
The two friends are not merely highly educated but persons with a high level of intellect – Zafar more than the narrator – to whom knowledge of this world is a central way of thinking. For in laying out his story Haider uses a complex and rather cumbersome story telling method as the narrator pieces together Zafar's missing time.
The book is ridden with epigraphs, footnotes, extracts, quotations and phrases from other men, other books and other writings. For a while it seems a bit overwhelming. After all, starting each chapter in a book with three epigraphs can be a tiny bit misleading sometimes. One can wonder how or what to wonder about this.
As the story progresses and the writer intermingles his texts with more complex arguments - mathematical theorems, science and literature and philosophy - always quoting someone else's work, the writing feels a bit overwhelming. There is an extract from David Foster Wallace's article on mathematics as art, frequent references to Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, references to history, or science (there is mention of a rare Mexican Salamander otherwise known as an axolotl), etc.
Is that a bit of bragging about knowledge, or a case of simple showing off? One must read more to find out.
In the very beginning of the book Zafar describes his journey to Sylhet (where he hails from) as a child. It is a charming few pages where he describes his entry into a village where he spends the next four years of a life, a period he describes as the time he was happiest in his life.
In describing his journey to get there, Zafar talks about the colours of the pineapples he sees growing in a field along the journey road and launches into his personal observations of the science and history of it all. Why graves are not marked by some Sunni Muslims (the writer refers to them as the Wahabi 'variety' of Muslims), how one area has more peaceful dominance of people of different cultures and religions living in harmony. This part of the book is perhaps the simplest and most charming part of the entire story.
The writer, who himself is from Sylhet, almost takes a brief moment from his storytelling to delve into some simple reminiscing.
As Zafar continues his story, however, it is his adult years he talks about more about. This is where begins the complex use of metaphors and references and borrowed text to argue and illustrate his understanding of a situation, incident or person or even psychoanalysis of someone's behaviour.
The narrator keeps up with him or at times is lost to Zafar's arguments. The discussions that follow where Zafar explains in elaboration what he is trying to say give rise to more elaborate metaphors, which is analysed further through using more complex arguments and references.
It is at this point that the reader realises the intense struggle within Zafar to get his thoughts right, to be able to explain to his friend what he feels or understands of most everything in his life. That he is about to divulge some great secret or event, or confess something he is holding back. The theories and arguments are just his way of arriving at his own points and being sure of them.
The writer uses such complex illustrations as 'Poggendorf's illusion', or literary extracts from Shakespeare, George Elliot or Robert Frost to set the tone of a chapter. But this is in keeping with Zafar's complex way of finding logic in things.
The chapters do get a little bulky, but in the end the writer more or less is able to reign in the sail of Zafar's streaming thoughts for smooth sailing of the story's continuance.
And what a story it is.
Zafar is a war child. A child born out of rape; his struggle between class and creed in his later life - a main feature of the storyline - is thus not a just simple desire to fit it. It is a much deeper personal identity crisis with which he grapples. He lives a hard life.
He learns that it is not just fate that has betrayed him but also a friend.
The narrator and Zafar have a complex history of a relationship. Their paths cross time and again not only because of the stars but because of events of their own unfolding.
In the Light of What We Know is thus a very aptly titled story where what one knows and seems to know or what is known to be by allusion changes in the light of the facts being divulged.
And yet that is not the completeness of things. Zafar is obsessed with Godel's Incompleteness Theorem – a theorem that in layman's language could somehow be stated as 'Some things simply cannot be proved'. Zafar's inner frustrations with his love and belief in mathematics and knowledge, and the subsequent discovery of how this still doesn't help him understand many things in life is compelling, heart touching.
The narrator pieces together Zafar's journey and story - from which his own actions are not separable - from the soulful, complex explanations Zafar gives and the very many notebooks he has kept over time that he lets his friend go through.
Though the book is predominantly about friendship and betrayal, there is actually a bit of everything in the story --- search for love, search for God, class struggle, struggle for one's own unique identity and journey for inner peace and balance. There are also 1971, Wall Street and its practices, the changing fabric of the world after 9/11, new issues of international development in the post 9/11 era – and some more - in the 500 plus pages of the book.
The story moves from Sylhet, to London to New York to Kabul, much like the path of happenings that shape all of our lives. It is the immigrants' new tale.
Haider tells an excellent human interest story in the context of many things – love, life, knowledge, fate, destiny in the current setting of a very turbulent world. Though the story begins with the narrator's voice appearing stronger in comparison, Zafar's voice gets stronger and bigger until we know why the narrator is weakening even in his thoughts.
In the Light of What We Know is essentially Zafar's journey.
Like Zafar in the story, Haider himself was born in Sylhet. He rose from very ordinary beginnings to go on to Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, the money markets of Wall Street. He then changed course to become an international human rights lawyer. His life is almost the making of a complete circle to come into his own being; and here he is sharing those experiences in his first book, which is being called the most brilliant book of the year.
Haider proves himself an excellent and compelling storyteller. His insight into one's mind in light of what is around the person is extremely admirable and this book is definitely not just a work of fiction. It is the result of deep reflection, introspection, understanding and compassion of life in the light of what surrounds us today.
That the book is not only Zafar's story but a glimpse of how Haider's mind works is without contest.
The story is brave and its style bold, but that it could well be one of the few of its kind is evident. Constructing a work of fiction around lines of reference and arguments worthy more of a comparative study is no mean feat. It is hard work.
And yet this is not to say the book is not without its minor disappointments. Many readers will actually struggle with the necessity to understand the complex theories Zafar alludes to. Then there are sudden bursts of footnotes, laid out as the narrator's notes taken from Zafar's notes that constantly come in the way of reading.
But then this is no book for the ordinary. James Wood, the revered critic, called Haider's book the most 'dazzling debut' of the year.
If one thinks of the popularity of post colonial writings and immigrants' stories in the aftermath of the first world war and new millennium, Zia Haider Rahman's book is a new take on immigration, identity, exile and the meaning of life in general under the purview of all this. It is the new state of affairs, the effects of world globalisation he talks about.
If you are up for an intellectual challenge, then this captivating book from a very talented writer is the one for you.

Muneera Parbeen is a journalist based in London.