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Title: Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi, Erdag Goknar ISBN: 0-15-100698-9 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: You have to read it!
Comment: This small book is fantastic!
Wonderful and touching story. Go ahead, read it!
Rating: 5
Summary: MASTERFUL ECONOMY OF WORDS
Comment: Atiq Rahimi's short novel set during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan compresses an amazing amount of emotion, pain and loss into its 81 pages. He gives us an incredible, ground-level view of what war can do to a nation that is already poor (in material things, that is - the spirit depicted here is stunning in its resilience) and lacking in the infrastructures and other benefits we tend to take for granted - running water, literacy, health services. The TV newscasts tend to take a view rather like some history books, speaking in terms of armies and generals and referring to people as nations, thereby depersonalizing the conflict.
The author has done an astonishing job in conveying the experience of his elderly narrator, Dastaguir - the old man has seen his village destroyed by the Soviets, all of his family that lived there killed with the exception of his grandson Yassin, who has been left deafened by the explosions. Dastaguir, in his grief and desperation, sets off on a tortuous trek through a harsh landscape in order to find his son Murad, Yassin's father, and inform him of the death of the boy's mother and the destruction of the village. Along the way, Dastaguir wrestles with his grief (how to allow it to escape his heart); his conscience (how to tell Murad of the tragedy without destroying him); his sense of revenge and his hope for his nation and the world; nightmarish visions, hallucinations and memories that are too terrible to accept as reality. All the while, he must care for his grandson. The boy has no understanding of what has happened to him - he knows that most of his family is now dead, and he comprehends the destruction of the village, but he fails to grasp the reality of his own deafness. He thinks that the Russians have stolen the sounds from the world, and the voices from the people, in the attack. When Yassin finally asks 'Grandfather, do I have a voice?', and the old man tells him 'yes', it begins to sink it - his next question to Dastaguir is 'So why am I alive?' It's a question that breaks the old man's heart - and one that he cannot answer.
On his journey to find his son, Dastaguir encounters several amazing characters. Chief among these in kindness and wisdom is Mirza Qadir, a shopkeeper. The book makes the point that every single person has his or her own story - that these are individuals, not just a faceless 'nation'. They laugh and cry and love and suffer pain and loss and grief - and all of these are brought to life vividly in this short but rich work.
This is a story that will stand the test of time - and it is one that each of us should experience. I feel a heartfelt gratitude that Atiq Rahimi has focused what is obviously a formidable talent into blessing us with this precious gift.
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Title: This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun, Linda Coverdale ISBN: 1565847237 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Any Human Heart by William Boyd ISBN: 1400031001 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Love by TONI MORRISON ISBN: 0375409440 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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