‘Reconciliation, completed just before her death, is an analysis of the problems facing the Muslim world. But during the early 1980s she was to be cruelly mistreated by the dictator General Zia, taken from prison to prison and held for a time in a cage at a desert jail in Sindh, where temperatures would reach above 50C’ As a young woman at Harvard and Oxford universities, she imbibed idealistic ideas about democracy and feminism. ‘Benazir was, by all accounts, a devoted patriot, a loyal friend and a loving mother. There is, she says, enough blame to go around, with the lion’s share reserved for US policy and the Muslim elites that “play the west like a fiddle”.her central message – that only a democratically elected government, however imperfect, can give Pakistan a fighting chance of tackling extremism – cannot be repeated too often, especially to the occupants of the White House’ ‘It is a hard-headed, angry and convincing analysis of why Pakistan, like many other Muslim countries, has struggled to establish viable democratic institutions.

We just can’t wait until tomorrow to do it’ ‘It may be tempting to think her death undermines her belief in what was yet possible, but it seems more in keeping with the spirit of Reconciliation to say that there are ways to counter those who use violence to further their ends. ‘The more people that read this book the better’ ‘World exclusive: shocking allegations from the book she was writing when assassinated’įlagged on front cover and front page News Review, Sunday Times 3/2 Bhutto presents an image of modern Islam that defies the negative caricatures often seen in the West.‘The more people that read this book the better’. She speaks out not just to the West but also to the Muslims across the globe. In Reconciliation, Bhutto recounts in gripping detail her final months in Pakistan and offers a bold new agenda for how to stem the tide of Islamic radicalism and to rediscover the values of tolerance and justice that lie at the heart of her religion. But she continued to forge ahead, with more courage and conviction than ever, since she knew that time was running out-for the future of her nation and for her life.

Upon a tumultuous reception, she survived a suicide-bomb attack that killed nearly two hundred of her compatriots.

“One of the most gripping and important books of our era.” - Walter Isaacsonīenazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after eight years of exile, hopeful that she could be a catalyst for change. We owe it to her-and to ourselves-to listen, comprehend, and act.” - Madeleine Albright A courageous woman-tragically killed-speaks to us of reconciliation. “It is impossible to understand today’s world without knowing Pakistan and impossible to understand Pakistan without reading this book.

Reconciliation by Benazir Bhutto