The Blind Man's Garden
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The author of The Wasted Vigil gives us a searing, exquisitely written novel set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11--a story of war, of one family's losses, and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses.
Jeo and Mikal, foster brothers from a small Pakistani town, secretly enter Afghanistan: not to fight with the Taliban against the Americans, but rather to help care for wounded civilians. Their good intentions, though, can't keep them out of harm's way. From the wilds of Afghanistan to the heart of the family left behind--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; Jeo's wife, whose increasing resolve helps keep the household running; and her superstitious mother--the narrative takes us on an extraordinary journey. In language as lyrical as it is piercing, in scenes at once beautiful and harrowing, The Blind Man's Garden unflinchingly describes a topical yet timeless world, powerfully evoking a place where the line between enemy and friend is indistinct, and where the desire to return home burns brightest of all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When foster brothers Jeo and Mikal decide to leave Pakistan for Afghanistan in order to help the wounded, they have no idea what this simple desire to help will cost themselves and their loved ones. Award-winning novelist Nadeem Aslam's fourth novel (The Wasted Vigil, Maps for Lost Lovers) chronicles the story of a family in Pakistan immediately after 9/11, where politics and religion color almost every aspect of daily life but love and family still reign supreme. Although the plot turns on the American and Taliban presence in Afghanistan, the focus is on humanizing those that get caught in between and the personal reasons that inform their decisions and alliances. While Jeo and Mikal navigate the dangers of Afghanistan, Jeo's bride, Naheed, helps her father-in-law, Rohan, transition into a life without sight. The relationship between the Christian school where Rohan's daughter, Yasmin, and her husband work and the rest of the community also becomes fraught with hostility, as militant Islamists begin to question its presence. Aslam shows the difficulties of living in a place where religion rules everyday living, but stresses the universality of their sufferings and desires. There are fits of beauty and lyricism through the novel, but the uneven pacing leaves the novel unbalanced. However, Aslam gives an empathetic, unbiased look at one of the most polarizing issues of the day and allows us to see the humanity in those that we call our enemy.
