Nadeem Aslam
The acclaimed author of ,The Wasted Vigil ,now gives us a searing, exquisitely written novel set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11: a story of war, of one familyâ€™s losses, and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses., Jeo and Mikal are foster brothers from a small town in Pakistan. Though they were inseparable as children, their adult lives have diverged: Jeo is a dedicated medical student, married a year; Mikal has been a vagabond since he was fifteen, in love with a woman he canâ€™t have. But when Jeo decides to sneak across the border into Afghanistanâ€”not to fight with the Taliban against the Americans, rather to help care for wounded civiliansâ€”Mikal determines to go with him, to protect him. , Yet Jeoâ€™s and Mikalâ€™s good intentions cannot keep them out of harmâ€™s way. As the narrative takes us from the wilds of Afghanistan to the heart of the family left behindâ€”their blind father, haunted by the death of his wife and by the mistakes he may have made in the name of Islam and nationhood; Mikalâ€™s beloved brother and sister-in-law; Jeoâ€™s wife, whose increasing resolve helps keep the household running, and her superstitious motherâ€”we see all of these lives upended by the turmoil of war. , In language as lyrical as it is piercing, in scenes at once beautiful and harrowing, ,The Blind Manâ€™s Garden, unflinchingly describes a crucially contemporary yet timeless world in which the line between enemy and ally is indistinct, and where the desire to return home burns brightest of all.
Fiction,Cultural,Pakistan,Historical,Historical Fiction,War,Contemporary,Novels,Religion,Cultural,Cultural,Asia,Literary Fiction
The Blind Man's Garden