Completing an epic panorama that began in fifteenth-century MoorishSpain, <em>Night of the Golden Butterfly</em> moves between the cities of the twenty-first century, from Lahore to London, from Paris to Beijing. The narrator isrung one morning and reminded that he owes a debt of honor. The creditoris Mohammed Aflatun&mdash;known as Plato&mdash;an irascible but gifted painterliving in a Pakistan where &ldquo;human dignity has become a wreckage.&rdquo; Plato,who once specialized in stepping back into the limelight, now wants his lifestory written.<br /><br />As the tale unravels we meet Plato&rsquo;s London friend Alice Stepford, now aleading music critic in New York; Mrs. &ldquo;Naughty&rdquo; Latif, the Islamabadhousewife whose fondness for generals forces her to flee to the salons ofintellectually fashionable Paris; and there&rsquo;s Jindie, the Golden Butterfly of thetitle, the narrator&rsquo;s first love. Interwoven with this chronicle of contemporarylife is the turbulent history of Jindie&rsquo;s family. Her great forebear, Dù Wénxiù,led a Muslim rebellion in Yunnan in the nineteenth century and ruled theregion for almost a decade, as Sultan Suleiman. <em>Night of the Golden Butterfly</em>reveals Ali in full flight, at once imaginative and intelligent, satirical andstimulating.