Aisha Hassan's powerful novel on bonded labour

AISHA Hassan's debut novel is inspired by a true story, and that origin shapes both its power and its limits.

- LIESL VAN DER SCHYFF

When the Fireflies Dance steps into the harsh reality of bonded labour in Pakistan, not as distant history but as a present-day system that continues to trap families in generational debt.

Hassan's focus is narrow and personal. Instead of tackling the politics head-on, she filters the story through one young man, Lalloo, and his determination to pull his family out of a life spent moulding bricks for someone else's profit.

Lalloo is defined by an early trauma, the violent loss of his older brother, and by the burden of responsibility placed on him while still a child. As an adult, working far from home, he measures every decision against one goal: freeing his parents and sisters.

It is a strong emotional premise, and Hassan understands that the real tension lies not in dramatic twists but in the slow grind of poverty, debt and obligation.