Burnt Shadows

Harry attends a party at the home of a wealthy businessman in Islamabad, still feeling sorry about the scene at dinner with the Ashrafs, despite Hiroko’s reassurances. Harry chats with another CIA operative, Steve, about the growing list of international arms dealers to the mujahideen. Harry notes that Israel, Pakistan, and India working together to arm Afghanistan against the Soviets, all on behalf of the political goals of the USA, is a sad perversion of his uncle Konrad’s cosmopolitan dream.

In Karachi, Hiroko also thinks about Konrad, due to a letter from Yoshi Watanabe. Yoshi is retiring as principal of the international school he helped establish in Azalea Manor after Konrad’s death. Hiroko imagines taking Raza to visit Nagasaki and considers her son’s discomfort about being half-Japanese. Hiroko wonders how her life may have been different if her first child, a girl, had lived.

Raza comes home and evades Hiroko’s questions about where he has been. Hiroko reminds Raza of the book of American universities that Harry sent Raza via his contact Sher Mohammed, but Raza is evasive, saying only that he will make Hiroko proud. Hiroko asks Raza where he goes each day, but Raza tells his mother not to worry and warns her not to ruin his good