"Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday" by Jamaluddin Aram intrigued me from the start, promising an immersive experience. However, I found myself struggling to connect with the story and fully grasp its intricacies. Despite my efforts, I felt distracted and found myself turning pages without fully absorbing the content—a case of the wrong book at the wrong time.

I normally don’t read books that are historical, but I very much enjoyed the rich setting and the characters within. It was quirky and also completely fascinating to see an event from a different perspective.

The characters and setting of this story were crafted with care, the author transporting me from my living room to dusty streets amidst an unfamiliar culture. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting to the story itself and found myself distracted. I don't believe this to be a case of poor writing but as a mood reader, much more a case of wrong book, wrong time aka, "it's not you, it's me."

The concept of this book had a lot of potential and I was quite excited to read it however, it fell kind of short for me. The characters were not very captivating and I found the structure a little disjointed (maybe it's supposed to be that way?) but I found it hard to follow along even when most characters were reoccurring. I found myself putting the book down quite often and forgetting where I was or what was happening when I would come back to it.

I was a little confused that the story didn’t truly stick with Aziz and Seema, but once I figured out what the narration would be like, I really enjoyed myself. So much of what happens is “aimless,” just like the way life can be. The way gossip and the old, old histories between people are written about, first obliquely, then as a winding story with digressions, felt very similar to all other small town stories. All of the characters were deeply interesting, and the sense of magical realism that cropped up periodically still felt natural.

Today I'm sharing my thoughts about a book written by Jamaluddin Aram who was born in Afghanistan and now lives in Toronto, Canada. I received a digital arc from Netgalley of this debut novel.

Title: Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday

Author: Jamaluddin Aram

Publication Date: June 6, 2023

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 287

PG-13 Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. May include profanity, violence, sexual situations, or drug use.
› "In Wazirabad the walls had mice and the mice had ears and listened when people talked."

› Aziz has a strange dream that motivates him to build a wall made from clay and glass. He told his friends, Sikandar and Hossain, the grandsons of store owner Baba Gul Ahmad about the dream. Hossain works for the "Bucktoothed Tailor" and has a crush on "the Widow". He wears his best jacket every day in case he runs into her. Sikandar likes the "Water Seller's Wife".

› Aziz's father was killed in the war and Aziz has a leg injury from when one of the Militiamen let their dog loose which chased and attacked Aziz. His mother is a sex worker. Children bullied Aziz and his sister, Seema, about this which is why Aziz decided to quit school to look for a job and Seema decorates flags with calligraphy and catches scorpions to sell.

› "At that moment, Seema returned from school and the Widow's Welsummer rooster appeared on the wall. It was a big, beautiful, flaming-red bird with a magnificent crimson comb and long green tail feathers."

› At first glance, the rooster's appearances seem random, but, the rooster shows the passage of time and by paying close attention to when each character mentions the rooster and how it helps them you'll be able to piece together the linear story. To name just a few instances: the rooster confirms that Aziz's wall of glass works, it tells Husnia when to take the herb, and it enables the Water Seller's wife to give him eggs.

The novel is written in a non-linear, vignette style, with different narrators and overlapping stories. This is a snapshot of a small town in Afghanistan and how their lives are affected by war.

› I rate reviews similar to the CAWPILE method
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding

› Characters: 5
There is a large cast: The Vegetable Seller, the Mule, the Bucktoothed Tailor, the Widow, the Water Seller's Wife, the Calligrapher, the Watchmaker, the Bonesetter's Shop, the Bakery Owner, the Porter, the Old Barber, the three Militiamen, the Electrician.
I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I felt confused about their goals and motivations, and I was hoping for more character development showing their strengths, flaws, characteristics and backstory.

› Atmosphere: 5
I wanted more description and found it hard to picture the settings. I didn't feel emotion.

› Writing Style: 10
Beautiful writing style. I didn't find it wordy or repetitive. Great readability and enjoyed the point of view.

› Plot: 6
The story is told in a non-linear manner, which is a little confusing at times.

› Intrigue: 6

› Logic: 7
The same story is sometimes re-told from another character's perspective which can be confusing.

› Enjoyment: 6
Overall, this is a good debut. I didn't laugh or cry, but I do enjoy the writing style and creativity.

Average 6.4

1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Rating ★★★

› Final Thoughts
• Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday is a hopeful novel about how civil war touches the lives of the townspeople and whose tales weave into one narrative about survival, peace, family, and love. I recommend this novel to fans of literary fiction or historical fiction.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending this book for review. All opinions are my own.

While nothing good may happen in Wazirabad on a Wednesday, there is certainly a lot happening in this small town. Jamaluddin Aram’s cast of characters are fit for a soap opera for the amount of gossip and drama they have in their lives. Through hardship, humorous moments, and a fierce dependence on the meaning of their dreams you’ll be sucked into their lives in 1990’s Kabul, Afghanistan.

Aram has a great writing style that is descriptive and meaningful. How he writes from each character’s perspective is really masterful.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advance copy to review.

This novel of 1990s Afghanistan focuses its lens on the stories of community in a time of civil war.
Jamaluddin Aram is a writer originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, now living in Toronto. He writes stories and essays, some of which can be easily found on the internet, and they’re good! This is his debut novel.

In the early 1990s the Soviet war in Afghanistan had ended, and civil war had broken out. This is the backdrop, but Aram focuses his story on Wazirabad, a suburb of Kabul. There are a myriad of characters: teen boys who work to support their families; a sister who makes money doing calligraphy and selling scorpions (that men smoke!) to soldiers; the Widow, the Bonesetter….so many. Some recur chapter to chapter, and some we see only once, then fade into the background.

What struck me is how each person must find their way to survive in this pretty harsh world, but all are inextricably linked as an integral whole. Aram takes his lens to pan the whole of the village, then zooms in on one scene and one character at a time. From these small stories, a canvas emerges of life for these people in this place.

My favourite characters were the Bonesetter, with his interesting mix of common-sense, science and mysticism; and Sikandar, a teenage boy with a good heart who has to grow up awfully fast. The book rose in my estimation in the last chapter, "On the Hill, the Graves," which featured Sikandar. It was a moving, poignant look at trauma, war, peace, grief and solace.

Aram writes the war as at once so traumatic, but also almost mundane. Perhaps it is so big and wearying and scary that the characters (those that have survived) can’t let it consume them. Truly horrific things take their place alongside the rhythm of daily life. The mini-wars they have with each other–the arguments, the grievances–are more immediate. But so are the loves, the intimacy, and the interconnectedness.

In fact, so much of the stuff of life seemed immediate. Love, passion, sex, aggression and dealing with death felt raw and close. Even the weather felt essential to the story and the characters: oppressive heat and ominous snow. It made me think of cultural context, especially in a time of long, seemingly endless war.

I liked this novel quite a bit because being immersed in the minutiae of daily life in Wazirabad was absorbing, but being shown the bigger picture–the panned out shot–was thought-provoking and showed me a different world. A solid debut!

Thanks Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for this digital copy in exchange for my review.

This novel is rather chaotic, I suppose in the way that life in a town during a civil war is most likely chaotic. It was odd for me to read about people standing around during gunfire, waiting to cross the street and being hit by stray bullets, and then going about their morning as usual when the skirmish stops.

The stories in this book reveal the appalling daily reality of war. The chapters move from character to character, showing the everyday life in an Afghan town, and how the townspeople adapt to nearby conflict from many perspectives.

I found the first chapter, from Aziz's perspective, really engaging. But as the point of view shifted around, I became distanced from the story. I feel like I would have been more gripped by the narrative if we had stuck with Aziz for the whole story. I find hard topics easier to absorb when I am invested in a character.

The structure of this book was really interesting -- more like (sometimes loosely) connected and overlapping vignettes than one cohesive narrative. There are time jumps, but they always happen forward, so it's not too disorienting. It's an interesting way of presenting the subjective nature of experience, as we get to look at the same incident or character from a few different perspectives, and with the addition of time to see the consequences.

The downside of this experimental structure is that by the time you begin to invest in, or even understand, one person's storyline, you're on to the next one. In most cases you never receive any closure on their narrative, and sometimes you fail to hear of them again. I think even the author recognized this potential issue as we do get to return to one couple and learn a bit more about them. While that was satisfying (they're definitely the most likable characters, though maybe just because we spend the most time with them?) it emphasizes how little we've connected with the other characters and their storylines.

It was really beautifully written, really sets the scene(s) in a very tactile way. Scenes sticky with heat, numb with cold, fighting perpetual dust and dirt from explosions were all conjured so evocatively I could feel it. I would definitely read something else by this author and hope it was a more conventional form so I could really invest in the story.

This is a story or collection of scenes of working-class people trying, as usual, to carry on everyday lives within a background of war. The time is the early 1990s in a small town in Afghanistan. Russian forces have withdrawn, but civil war has broken out and is drawing closer. The people all know one another or are connected in some way. The author, Jamaliddin Aram, was a documentary filmmaker and writer from Kabul, Afghanistan, and now lives and writes in Canada. His writing is vividly descriptive. It is a tale of friendship, love, lust, yearnings, tragedy and death.

This dark, comic, sometimes alarming story gives glimpses of its citizens, their dreams, frustrations, hate, and worries. It is told in non-linear mode, going back and forth and describing events from various perspectives. People wander the streets and ally ways, always trying to avoid bullets whizzing through the town. Theft has become prevalent in homes and the mosque, and electric power is frequently cut off, causing fresh food to spoil, women failing to produce children, wells drying up, and rats invading homes and businesses. Rumours prevail that blame certain citizens for causing the deteriorating conditions.

For medical concerns, there is a woman who offers herbal cures, a medical doctor who is seldom consulted, and a bonesetter who reads poetry to his cats, prescribes medicines for illnesses, interprets dreams, and sometimes sets broken bones. Both he and the doctor warn patients about using herbal treatments. A washerwoman makes a living by washing soldiers' clothes but must also meet their sexual demands. Her teenage son is adding shards of broken glass to the top of a wall to deter burglars. The daughter earns money by decorating flags with her beautiful calligraphy. She catches scorpions to sell to a man who prefers to crush and smoke their bodies instead of his usual hashish. A pretty young widow is the target of men's longing. She owns a rooster that wanders through the street daily to visit a nearby henhouse. The egg supply is failing as the hens are eating their eggs. The hens later die from poison after scrounging in the garbage for food. Three militiamen stand guard in the main street, and their ammunition is missing, the casings being sold for scrap metal. Their guard dog has been stolen. Rumours suggest they are thieves and have murderous plans.

War is drawing closer, and I suspect nothing good will happen on days other than Wednesdays in Wazirabad but that its citizens will prevail. Various quirky and exciting characters pop in and out of the story. It can be confusing when they are identified by name or their occupation. Near the end of the book, shocking violence erupts. It was unclear how much was reality, the result of dreams and visions, mass hysteria, or hallucinations brought about by smoking scorpions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for introducing me to an interesting writer. The book is due to be published on June 6.

I enjoyed the descriptive talents of the author. For many of the scenes, I felt like in Wazirabad. I also liked how the author fleshed out the characters and gave them a rich and deep connection to the story.

I wish there was a way to give partial stars because it would have been a 3.75 rating for me.

I enjoyed some of the characters more and wished the telling was more in-depth about them.

A month ago, I entered a Goodreads giveaway and a week later I received this advance reader’s copy in the mail. I had no idea what it was about but was going to discover it soon enough.

Nothing Good Happens In Wazirabad On Wednesday is a debut novel by Jamaluddin Aram. Set in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 90s, it retells the story of a village where dreams predict the future and rumors are always true. During a civil war in a working-class town and thru the eyes and ears of many villagers we explore how it is to live in the Wazirabad district where everyone is someone’s grandson, wife, or apprentice. A story about peace in a time of war…

What I liked the most about this book is the way everyone and everything is linked together. From the first page to the last one we discover how every soul is intertwined. Thrue different point of view, the book presents to us many events and how they affect other people’s life.

Unfortunately, some parts were difficult to understand because of the overlapping narrators and the jumps in time. An event talked about in the beginning of the book could come up two hundred pages later because someone else retold how they experienced it differently. It’s an interesting concept but it was sometimes hard to follow.

The author, Jamaluddin Aram, is a documentary filmmaker, producer, and writer from Kabul, Afghanistan, now living in Toronto. He is known for his short story This Hard Easy Life who was finalist for RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Nothing Good Happens In Wazirabad On Wednesday is his first novel and will be published by Scribner Canada on June 6, 2023. You can find the advanced reader’s edition for free on NetGalley.com.

Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and foreign literature. It was an interesting read that made me think about the power of community when times are hard.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me permission to read this book. I ran into technical difficulties and was not able to read the book in its entirety. I shall look for it in physical form when it is available. The section that I was able to read had lively rhythmic prose and good observations of humanity.

The recent history of Afghanistan has been tumultuous, to say the least. I know firsthand. When Canada was still fighting the War on Terror in the country, I was involved with a Canadian government aid organization that strove to educate people about changing conditions there. Still, things were fraught with peril. Any time that we used a picture of a woman starting her own business in Afghanistan, we would have to carefully crop the photograph lest members of the Taliban see it, recognize the background used in the image, and go to that location to harm (or worse) the woman who was being entrepreneurial. Thus, I feel I have a stake or at least an interest in the upcoming novel Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday. You wouldn’t know this from reading the book, necessarily, but it is set in the early 1990s in a working-class suburb of sorts in Kabul, Afghanistan. A civil war rages on, even though the invading Soviets had been driven out sometime before. This is a dense, challenging novel — one that eschews a linear plot in favour of vignettes that set the scene of a community trying to get by in the face of chaos.

Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday is a book about dreams, too. Its characters have them and they turn out to be oddly prophetic. However, this is a novel about the day-to-day struggle just to get by when the electricity is out, and crossing the street to go to the grocery store is perilous because bullets are whizzing by in all directions. This is also a book about desire — the sexual kind of longing that can only occur when your daily existence may be called into question — and a book, in its last third, about death and trying to preserve in the face of it. The characters of this novel long to lead normal lives although everything is in disarray. The book’s framing device is the fact that three robbers have been breaking into houses in the community, and people are desperate to find out who is robbing them and what they can do to protect themselves. All in all, a lot is happening in Wazirabad, but it’s the individual stories that count the most.

The novel has its plusses and its minuses. On the positive side of the ledger, this is a well-written, almost poetic, read. I know that using the words “well-written” is a bit of a cop-out, but there’s no other way to describe the high quality of writing here. It may help if you have some knowledge of Muslim customs and traditions, a little bit of the Farsi language, and an overall sense of recent events in the history of Afghanistan as a country. Aram assumes that readers will be knowledgeable about all of this, and there is no handholding as the author plunges into setting the book’s scene. In some ways, this book reminded me of the works of Gabriel García Márquez, just without the magic realism (or perhaps a muted sense of magic realism as it turns out that dreams here can sometimes turn true). If that sounds appealing to you, you will get lost in this novel. The downside for me was that the book can be quite confusing at times — not just for the fact that the author assumes you have prior knowledge of certain things. For instance, the characters are named by their first names but also, at different times in the book, the names of their occupations, so you, in effect, must keep track of “double” the characters and sort out who’s who. The novel also leaps from character to character — and someone who you think is going to play an important role in the “plot” of the book will suddenly disappear and be never heard from again. This will either be infuriating or charming depending on how much you like being challenged by the books that you read.

At the end of the day, Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday is not a read that everyone will appreciate. This is elevated art that will appeal to those who seek out literary fiction. As the author resides in Toronto now, I wonder if this novel will have a shot at a big-name Canadian literary award, such as the Giller Prize. Despite the richness of the writing, I did find that the book stopped on a dime and the last half of the book wasn’t as captivating as the first, as minor characters die off in different ways and influence those left behind. Having said that, the book is a marvelous first effort, and I must wonder what will come next from the pen of Jamaluddin Aram. The author acutely discusses what it is like to live a life during wartime where life tries to go on as it always had, to some degree. There is a lot to savour here, so if you like your reads to challenge and even sometimes frustrate you — the sign of a book that is trying to teach you how to read it — then you will find a lot to discover with Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday. To put it succinctly, this is a book certain people will enjoy — and having some investment in the plight of the Afghani people is part of the package. It’s certainly an educating eye-opener in some respects, so the curious should approach this novel with no trepidation. It’s worth trying out and may reward the patient reader who is probably the best kind of audience for a book where a lot of bad things happen, but people still persevere. It’s a curio.