5 Must Read Books by 5 Kashmiri Authors.
Millions of authors have written hundreds of million books and Kashmiri authors are not behind. We share with you five books on Kashmir by the generation of authors who have been through the turbulent times of nineties. Witness to this bloody conflict these authors share some hauntingly beautiful anecdotes in their books.
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Lalchowk Desk - | 2018-07-20 16:05:00
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1. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer.
Born in Seer, Anantnag Basharat Peer is a journalist, script writer, author and political commentator. Peer is currently Staff editor at New York Times. His book Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir is a memoir on the conflict in Kashmir. It won the Crossword Prize for Non-Fiction and was chosen among the Books of the Year by The Economist and The New Yorker.
About the Book
Curfewed Night
is an account of a man's love for his land, the agony of leaving home, and
the pleasure of coming back. The book has fiercely brave piece of literary
reporting with haunting interviews of victims of Army brutality.
Buy Curfewed Night
here.
2. The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed
Born and raised in Kashmir Mirza Waheed is a novelist and journalist currently based in London. Mirza is Delhi University alumnus. Mirza has written for the BBC, the Guardian, Granta, Guernica, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times. His first novel, The Collaborator, was published in 2011 and was a finalist to the Guardian First Book award. His second novel, The Book of Gold Leaves, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim.
About the Book
It is Kashmir in the early 1990s and war has finally reached the isolated village of Nowgam close to the Pakistan border. Indian soldiers appear as if from nowhere to hunt for militants on the run. Four teenage boys, who used to spend their afternoons playing cricket, or singing Bollywood ballads down by the river, have disappeared one by one, to cross into Pakistan and join the movement against the Indian army. Only one of their friends, the son of the headman, is left behind. The families in the village begin to think it's time to flee, to search for a place of greater safety. But the headman will not allow his family to leave. And, whilst the headman watches his dreams give way beneath the growing violence, his son, under the brutal, drunken gaze of the Indian army captain, is seemingly forced to collaborate and go into the valley to count the corpses, fearing, each day, that he will discover one of his friends lying amongst the dead. The Collaborator is a stunningly humane work of storytelling with a poignant and unpredictable hero at its heart. In one of the most shocking and brilliantly compelling novels of recent times Mirza Waheed lights our way into the heart of a war that is all too real
Buy The Collaborator here
3. The Half Mother by Shahnaz Bashir
Shahnaz Bashir is one of the best writers based in Kashmir. Shahnaz teaches narrative journalism and conflict reporting at the Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the University of Kashmir. His widely reviewed and critically lauded debut novel The Half Mother won the Muse India Young Writer Award 2015.Shahnaz was also awarded the Shamim Ahmad Shamim Kashmir Times 2007 Award for excelling in media studies. His next book Scattered Souls, a collection of interlinked stories, is out in early 2016 by Fourth Estate (HarperCollins).
About the Book
The Half Mother marks the debut of a bold new voice from Kashmir. The story is extremely riveting, enthralling yet poignant in every aspect. The night is tired now, the old moon, hanging in the dark sky, is tired too. It is the 1990s and Kashmir's long war has begun to claim its first victims. Among them are Ghulam Rasool Joo, Haleema's father and her teenage son Imran, who is picked up by the authorities only to disappear into the void of Kashmir's missing people. The Half Mother is the story of Haleema-a mother and a daughter yesterday, a 'half mother' and an orphan today, tormented by not knowing whether Imran is dead or alive, torn apart by her own lonely existence. While she battles for answers and seeks out torture camps, jails and morgues for any signs of Imran, Kashmir burns in a war that will haunt it for years to come. Heart-wrenching, deeply troubling and lyrical, The Half Mother marks the debut of a bold new voice from Kashmir.
Buy The Half Mother here
4. Our Moon Has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita
Rahul Pandita is a Kashmir author and Journalist. He is a 2015 Yale World Fellow. The current title was shortlisted for The Crossword Book Award. A reporter with extensive experience in war zones that include Iraq and Sri Lanka, Rahul won the International Red Cross award for conflict reporting. He has also written: Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement and co-authored The Absent State.
About the Book
Our Moon has Blood Clots is a detailed memoir of the migration of the Kashmiri Pandit community. About 3,50,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of the state, and into a life of exile in their own nation. In a deeply personal and powerful story of history, home and ultimately, loss, Rahul Pandita tells a tale that has been crying to be told.
Buy Our Moon Has Blood Clots here
5. The Night of Broken Glass by Feroz Rather
Feroz Rather is a doctoral student of Creative Writing at Florida State University. Feroz has made a mark with his debut novel getting acclaims from all quarters. His work has appeared in The Millions, The Rumpus, The Southeast Review, Caravan, Warscapes, Berfrois, and Himal.
About the Book
Over the last three decades, Kashmir has been ravaged by insurgency. While reams have been written on it - in human rights documents, academic theses, non-fiction accounts of the turmoil, and government and military reports - the effects of the violence on its inhabitants have rarely been rendered in fiction. Feroz Rather's The Night of Broken Glass corrects that anomaly. Through a series of interconnected stories, within which the same characters move in and out, the author weaves a tapestry of the horror Kashmir has come to represent.
Buy The Night of Broken Glass here
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