Mohammed Hanif, Booker-longlisted author’s lively and rich novel about the power of language, friendship, and protest in the face of political turmoil.

Rebel English Academy is set during the rapid descent of semi-socialist Pakistan into neither its first nor last period of military dictatorship. In 1979, the army’s hanging of leftist prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto precipitates mysterious changes in the Punjab province.  Sir Baghi, a closeted gay communist English teacher who stopped volunteering his critiques of the government after being subjected to brutal torture, when a widow and former track runner Sabiha Bano, on the run arrives at his door and hides out in Sir Baghi’s Academy after her husband’s death in a suspect fire. Baghi encourages Sabiha to write, and a lifetime of secrets begin to unspool on the page.

The story of Sir Baghi and Sabiha are intertwined with that of Captain Gul, a military intelligence officer who dreams of merry encounters with global leaders, from the Shah of Iran to Indira Gandhi. His daytime mission is to root out or stamp out support for the hanged Bhutto who some believe is still alive and biding his time.

Hanif’s military officer is often drunk and always lascivious, the town’s Imam tries to make a Quranic argument for securing a second wife, only to be put in his place by his first one. In the Rawalpindi jail where Bhutto was held before his hanging. “All prisoners but one are asleep in their cells, restless, dreaming of their victims or their loved ones, which in most cases are the same people.”

Hanif tracks abuses of power in police stations, marriages and mosques, When Gul learns of the drugged rape of a woman, facilitated by the victim’s husband, he swells with both desire and anger such depictions of the worst kinds of violence are littered throughout the text.

Captain Gul, has been banished to OK Town, where he aims to squash the protesters wanting to bring Bhutto back from the dead. But his duties and romantic desire begin to overlap and his already dubious power is threatened.

Rebel English Academy is a triumphant new novel about political power, religion, education, sexuality and perpetual dissent.

Rebel English Academy by Mohammed Hanif, Grove Press UK £16.99/ Grove Atlantic $28, 320 pages.