Fatima Bhutto on her abusive relationship: I thought it could never happen to me'

"Had Fatima Bhutto been left to her own devices, her devastating forthcoming memoir would have been almost entirely about her relationship with her dog, Coco. I know it sounds nuts, she laughs. And it's true that being dog-crazy doesn't quite track with the public perception of Bhutto as a writer, journalist, activist and member of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty. But the pandemic had forced something of a creative unravelling and when Bhutto took stock, she found herself only really able to write about Coco."

"A second draft was written, then abandoned. Until I thought, what if I just tell the truth? And then it fell out of me. In around three weeks Bhutto had reworked her draft and, in the process, revealed a shocking chapter of her life that she'd kept secret from everyone around her. The resulting book, The Hour of the Wolf, is a raw, vulnerable account of an abusive, decade-long relationship that Bhutto endured, certain in her belief that this was love."

During the pandemic a creative collapse led Bhutto to focus on her dog Coco before deciding to be honest about her life. In a rapid reworking she disclosed a decade-long abusive relationship with a man she calls The Man, describing him as uninhibited, blazingly sure of himself, beautiful and manipulative. The two met in New York in 2011 while Bhutto toured Songs of Blood and Sword, a work that stirred controversy by reevaluating the Bhutto dynasty and holding Benazir partly responsible for her father's murder. The long-distance relationship involved monthly meetings over 11 years and was sustained by sporadic kindness and adventure that masked control and abuse.

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