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The Collaborator
A novel set in Kashmir in the early 1990s. Praised by Mohammed Hanif, Nadeem Aslam, and Arundhati Roy.
306 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
73 people are currently reading
1736 people want to read
About the author
Mirza Waheed
9 books202 followersMirza Waheed was born and brought up in Kashmir. His debut novel, The Collaborator, was an international bestseller, a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award and the Shakti Bhat Prize, and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. In 2011, Waterstones selected it as part of its big literary debut promotion, ‘Waterstones 11’. It was also a book of the year for The Telegraph, New Statesman, Financial Times, Business Standard, and Telegraph India, among others. His second novel, The Book of Gold Leaves, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim.
The Book of Gold Leaves was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016, longlisted for the Folio Prize, and was a finalist for the 2015 Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year (Fiction).
Mirza has written for the BBC, the Guardian, Granta, Guernica, Scroll India, Caravan Magazine, Wriers Mosaic, Al Jazeera English, and The New York Times.
Waheed’s latest novel Tell Her Everything was nominated for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 and Tata Literature Live Book of the Year. It won the Hindu Prize for Fiction 2019.
Tell Her Everything was published by Melville House in the US and the UK in February 2023.
Waheed’s new novel Maryam & Son will be published in 2025.
The Book of Gold Leaves was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016, longlisted for the Folio Prize, and was a finalist for the 2015 Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year (Fiction).
Mirza has written for the BBC, the Guardian, Granta, Guernica, Scroll India, Caravan Magazine, Wriers Mosaic, Al Jazeera English, and The New York Times.
Waheed’s latest novel Tell Her Everything was nominated for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 and Tata Literature Live Book of the Year. It won the Hindu Prize for Fiction 2019.
Tell Her Everything was published by Melville House in the US and the UK in February 2023.
Waheed’s new novel Maryam & Son will be published in 2025.
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April 2, 2021
When Mirza Waheed did book reading sessions in Srinagar and New Delhi, people were astounded by the lingual beauty of his prose, some were even moved to such an affliction that they requested him to stop reading. It is the memory of anguish which allowed them to do so.
Kashmir has been a subject of savagery, a prisoner of fallacious hegemony and social chaos. The politics of Kashmir reflects a continuous decay and writings on the conflict in mainstream literature can help in gleaming out all those uncomfortable truths, to the world which hasn't been admonishing to our wretched conflict.
The story of sad lives neighbouring delightful wilderness, the savage rituals of death, the Jihadi militia hostility, the ruthlessness of Indian Army and painful longings of childhood friends, is what The Collaborator tries to render on paper, and it does it with extraordinary skill.
The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed, excels as an enchanting prose and is deeply disturbing. He uses a vocabulary of calibre, a comprehension so gripping that it challenges all those radical notions of bias amassed on Kashmir conflict.
The principal character is a Collaborator in his late teens, who is a son of a village chieftain. He is a victim of calamities who buries decaying human remains, collects their used weaponry and ammunition in beautiful meadows, abutting springs and mountains. He steals their identities on the orders of his impelling boss - a merciless alcohol-loving and swearing army man in a local army cantonment - Captain Kadian.
The Collaborator has sensed wild dogs growing fat on human flesh, he has seen headless bodies floating in streams, communities getting aroused towards fanaticism, and is longing for his childhood friends, who have embraced violence and crossed into training camps of Pakistan through secretive mountainous tracks, which are being discovered every now and then, by the Indian ground forces, and are endlessly shelled and bullet fired upon. There are even tales of betrayals and hatred aptly narrated. The book depicts adventures of this Collaborator in the quest for truth, lost love, amidst unceasing warfare, in an attempt to heal his consciousness, which is haunted by despair. The memories of his unforgettable childhood provide a catalyst to his motives. It is a story of Kashmir, seldom told before.
The Collaborator is a bloke who has seen modest communities getting brutalised and cruel politics looming and choking Kashmiri lives. He has seen Kashmir submerging into a devastating conflict, bleeding in abundance. The book is set in an isolated mountain village of Nowgam in the 1990's, where reportage is barely possible, where war is ever active, where truth is most feared, and where the fright of death breathes with human lives. While reading through the narration, the book will answer all those unasked and haunting questions, which hold true for most Kashmiris. It is fiction which excels as a deeply perceptive reportage of war and barbarity.
The Collaborator succeeds. The novel entraps due to its engrossing storyline. The last page of the novel guarantees tears. Waheed fictionalises real events of the conflict in a cordial manner. His diligence in narrating his characters depicts sincerity and deserves applause. An elegance of ingenious imagination blending factual realities is the conclusion which can be drawn, after finishing the pages of this novel.
Novels of this genre can significantly contribute towards a discourse on conflict resolutions.
The narration is sometimes compassionate, sometimes a painful elegy, depicting wraths of barbarism, of frustrations, and sometimes showing inherent sensitivities of human nature.
Kashmir has been a subject of savagery, a prisoner of fallacious hegemony and social chaos. The politics of Kashmir reflects a continuous decay and writings on the conflict in mainstream literature can help in gleaming out all those uncomfortable truths, to the world which hasn't been admonishing to our wretched conflict.
The story of sad lives neighbouring delightful wilderness, the savage rituals of death, the Jihadi militia hostility, the ruthlessness of Indian Army and painful longings of childhood friends, is what The Collaborator tries to render on paper, and it does it with extraordinary skill.
The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed, excels as an enchanting prose and is deeply disturbing. He uses a vocabulary of calibre, a comprehension so gripping that it challenges all those radical notions of bias amassed on Kashmir conflict.
The principal character is a Collaborator in his late teens, who is a son of a village chieftain. He is a victim of calamities who buries decaying human remains, collects their used weaponry and ammunition in beautiful meadows, abutting springs and mountains. He steals their identities on the orders of his impelling boss - a merciless alcohol-loving and swearing army man in a local army cantonment - Captain Kadian.
The Collaborator has sensed wild dogs growing fat on human flesh, he has seen headless bodies floating in streams, communities getting aroused towards fanaticism, and is longing for his childhood friends, who have embraced violence and crossed into training camps of Pakistan through secretive mountainous tracks, which are being discovered every now and then, by the Indian ground forces, and are endlessly shelled and bullet fired upon. There are even tales of betrayals and hatred aptly narrated. The book depicts adventures of this Collaborator in the quest for truth, lost love, amidst unceasing warfare, in an attempt to heal his consciousness, which is haunted by despair. The memories of his unforgettable childhood provide a catalyst to his motives. It is a story of Kashmir, seldom told before.
The Collaborator is a bloke who has seen modest communities getting brutalised and cruel politics looming and choking Kashmiri lives. He has seen Kashmir submerging into a devastating conflict, bleeding in abundance. The book is set in an isolated mountain village of Nowgam in the 1990's, where reportage is barely possible, where war is ever active, where truth is most feared, and where the fright of death breathes with human lives. While reading through the narration, the book will answer all those unasked and haunting questions, which hold true for most Kashmiris. It is fiction which excels as a deeply perceptive reportage of war and barbarity.
The Collaborator succeeds. The novel entraps due to its engrossing storyline. The last page of the novel guarantees tears. Waheed fictionalises real events of the conflict in a cordial manner. His diligence in narrating his characters depicts sincerity and deserves applause. An elegance of ingenious imagination blending factual realities is the conclusion which can be drawn, after finishing the pages of this novel.
Novels of this genre can significantly contribute towards a discourse on conflict resolutions.
The narration is sometimes compassionate, sometimes a painful elegy, depicting wraths of barbarism, of frustrations, and sometimes showing inherent sensitivities of human nature.
June 20, 2019
This is an excellent book on 'Kashmir'– a disputed zone between Indian and Pakistan. This beautiful region has a complicated history. From 1989 onwards, Kashmir's contentious history took even worser forms. A whole generation of Kashmiris grew up seeing Indian army as a colonizer victimizing the natives. Ironically, in this case, both the army and the Kashmiri people are the natives of the Nation-state we call India. Military atrocities in Kashmir, deaths of young boys in custody, sudden disappearances of people further aggravated the conflict in Kashmir. Now the conflict seems to have reached a deadlock, and there seems a no way out.
The novel is a story of a young Kashmiri boy who collaborates with the Indian army against other Kashmiris, but deep inside he hates the India, especially the Army officer and his assistant under whom he works. It is through this boy we get to know the 'chilling' story of Kashmir valley. The reader sees how the Army operates and to what extent it goes to maintain 'peace' and keep Kashmir 'integral to India.' The whole book bleeds. Peace seems a distant country. The rhetoric of peace is merely an excuse to shed rivers of blood. One kills for peace.
We further see how the friends of the boy-protagonist run away from their home villages to get military training in Pakistan. They all want to fight the Indian 'occupation.' And for good reasons, it seems. As one reads the depictions of torture, humiliations, cold-blooded murders unleashed on innocent Kashmiris; one feels furious.
Non-participating entities suffer the most in conflict zones. We see how women, elderly people, children get trapped. Rape is used as a weapon against Kashmiri women. Ironically, both militants and soldiers wage wars in the name of protecting their 'motherland', rape women and damage Kashmir. Militants rape and kill to punish the Kashmiri families who seem to collaborate with the Indian forces; Indian soldiers seems to know no better.
Landscape plays a very important role in the novel. One sees the spectacular valley has become a dumping ground of warfare's waste. The whole landscape is now marked with check-posts, patrolling trucks and jeeps, bunkers. This has not only damaged the landscape; this has poisoned people and affected them in so many ways. In the novel, we see men kill on whatever side they are and women are shown as nurtures. Women maintain their kitchen gardens, feed and nurse the elderly, children, and wounded men. Women suffer in silence. Sometimes they suffer direct assaults on their person, but mostly they suffer in passive but very real ways– losing husbands and living as young widows, protecting daughters, having no access to medical help, restricting their movements, suffering violence within their homes. This list can go on. The novel forcefully shows how nature and women suffer amidst warring masculinities.
It is a bit depressive book. Reading it makes one numb. How would it be for those who go through living it day after day. In parts, it seems like the deadly role of the army is exaggerated. But maybe writers need to exaggerate, especially when a certain people are not heard, when they are brutalized by those who claim to be their protectors.
The more one reflects on war-zones, one knows that 'wars' can be stopped at once, but I suppose WE love wars. There is a lot of money to make, weapons to buy and sell. It is a profitable business and everyone wants to have a share in the pie.
September 17, 2011
The Collaborator is a chilling tale of life on the India - Pakistan border in 1990s Kashmir.
Being immersed in this devastating conflict for only the few days I spent reading this book, I can't imagine how the author maintained any sense of normality during what must have been a lengthy research and writing period. Let alone how Kashmiris who lived through such horrid events ever managed to get back on with their lives.
If I had thought about it while reading, I probably would have made a mental note that the book was well written and rather poetic. But the truth is that like most well-written books you don't think about the writing whilst reading it. I was however continually struck by how real the lead character felt to me. Here I am a 30 something female living in the UK and never having thought of this part of the world let alone travelled to it, and yet this boy feels and thinks and talks in a way that could be me feeling and thinking and talking.
It is hardly a radical thought, but when we don't hide behind barriers of geography, economy, culture and language, then we really are all very similar.
I have to be honest and say I didn't enjoy reading this book. But then I doubt enjoyment was the goal that the author had in mind. In many ways it was like watching a horror movie... you know that you don't want to see it, but you still can't bring yourself to look away or change the channel. The only problem is that unlike most horror movies this story feels way too close to the truth.
Being immersed in this devastating conflict for only the few days I spent reading this book, I can't imagine how the author maintained any sense of normality during what must have been a lengthy research and writing period. Let alone how Kashmiris who lived through such horrid events ever managed to get back on with their lives.
If I had thought about it while reading, I probably would have made a mental note that the book was well written and rather poetic. But the truth is that like most well-written books you don't think about the writing whilst reading it. I was however continually struck by how real the lead character felt to me. Here I am a 30 something female living in the UK and never having thought of this part of the world let alone travelled to it, and yet this boy feels and thinks and talks in a way that could be me feeling and thinking and talking.
It is hardly a radical thought, but when we don't hide behind barriers of geography, economy, culture and language, then we really are all very similar.
I have to be honest and say I didn't enjoy reading this book. But then I doubt enjoyment was the goal that the author had in mind. In many ways it was like watching a horror movie... you know that you don't want to see it, but you still can't bring yourself to look away or change the channel. The only problem is that unlike most horror movies this story feels way too close to the truth.
February 12, 2014
It was the summer of 2008. We were tightly packed in an old beat up Mazda 929 as it hobbled up and down the jaunty road of Rawalakot (Azad Kashmir) leading to Hajira. I was visiting North with my family to kill the summer heat and there was no better place to be than at Rawalakot, a cool bustling city near the outskirts of Muzaffarabad. As we rode the rusty creaking car to the nearest village to the LoC, the rain overcame us and by the time we reached, a dread had already crept into each of our person. It was an exciting place to be - the beautiful streams toppling down from the giant mountains, the clouds brushing past along the wind, the green inevitability of the land, the terrace fields of colored flowers, everything about the place sang of the exquisiteness of the valley. But the threads of the natural beauty unhashed as soon as upon exchanging pleasantries with the locals and receiving warm welcome, we heard about a Pak-India encounter at the LoC. It couldn't be more timed. Just what I wanted to know about the situation at the LoC came to me in the concerned frowns and misty eyes of those people. Kashmir was beautiful during the day but dreadful at night. There was an ominous ring to everything that went about in Hajira valley. The fear, the trepidation, the anxiety of the place was haunting. Though everything was quite alright, I was never able to fathom that dread till today.
After reading Mirza's novel, I came to understand that dread. The valley that hides many a secrets and stories in its limitless folds emanates that fear. Mirza's book encompasses one of such stories, out of millions of others that are probably muffled over by now but not quite dead. The grief of each story collectively screams out of the valley and anyone visiting the place cannot help but discern that feeling of anger and helplessness. The story is about a boy who is unnamed during the entirety of the novel, takes on a special duty to collect belongings off the corpses left to rot in a hidden gorge. Though the boy is disgruntled and takes on the job out of fear, he's constantly ridden by guilt and longs for the company of his friends who went missing - most probably crossed the border to Pakistan to get military training and pick up arms against the Indian army. While some of those men who cross borders to dream of upending the fate of the valley and turning revolutionaries encounter Indian Army, others left in the valley find it difficult to live under the constant surveillance of the same. There's hardly any climax in the story. It finishes off smoothly as it starts, showing the adeptness of Mirza's lyrical language which confers much without being overly dramatic.
A must read from this part of the world.
After reading Mirza's novel, I came to understand that dread. The valley that hides many a secrets and stories in its limitless folds emanates that fear. Mirza's book encompasses one of such stories, out of millions of others that are probably muffled over by now but not quite dead. The grief of each story collectively screams out of the valley and anyone visiting the place cannot help but discern that feeling of anger and helplessness. The story is about a boy who is unnamed during the entirety of the novel, takes on a special duty to collect belongings off the corpses left to rot in a hidden gorge. Though the boy is disgruntled and takes on the job out of fear, he's constantly ridden by guilt and longs for the company of his friends who went missing - most probably crossed the border to Pakistan to get military training and pick up arms against the Indian army. While some of those men who cross borders to dream of upending the fate of the valley and turning revolutionaries encounter Indian Army, others left in the valley find it difficult to live under the constant surveillance of the same. There's hardly any climax in the story. It finishes off smoothly as it starts, showing the adeptness of Mirza's lyrical language which confers much without being overly dramatic.
A must read from this part of the world.
December 3, 2019
Mirza Waheed's deeply anguished, bold and lyrical debut novel remains a most enduring lament for the tragic plight of Kashmiris caught up in a conflict that has consumed multiple unfortunate generations. Though it came out in 2011 nothing much has changed. If anything, things are more horrendous than ever before as in the late summer of 2019 the entire populace of the Kashmir valley finds itself facing a curfew and disconnected from the rest of the world, after having their Constitutional protections summarily stripped away.
The Collaborator is told through the eyes of a sensitive seventeen year old living in a small, remote and increasingly tormented village on the Indian side near the LOC at a time of heightened attrition and violence. We learn that it is an area frequently used by 'infiltrators' - a term used for young Kashmiri men (but also non-Kashmiris who may similarly cross the LOC in such manner) who leave home invariably as a reaction to their continued persecution, cross the border to get armed and trained, and then 'infiltrate' back to their home terrain. As a result, the area has a large Indian army presence and those trying to get back are routinely shot and killed. Many of them lie dead, decimated and unclaimed across a stretch of land that is in full view of distant army check posts on either side.
The narrator finds himself in a situation - after almost all his friends have left (he believes they have crossed over to Pakistan and is deeply aggrieved that he had no prior intimation and also that he was left behind) - where he is under compulsion to periodically visit the accursed stretch of land. His macabre task is to retrieve identification cards, weapons and other such items from the often badly damaged and decomposing bodies of the dead. His task master is a smartly turned out, heavy drinking, foul-mouthed young Captain Kadian whose pet peeve and stock justification for all the unsavory tasks he and his military men are performing, is Pakistan.
In this bleak and morbid context the narrator gradually introduces the readers to the beautiful coniferous forest covered mountains and streams steeped in mist, abiding friendships and playful days of adolescence, and a simple, reclusive, unhurried life in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. But peace has been a reluctant and infrequent visitor given how that part of the world has been the arena for the entrenched contestation and conflict between India and Pakistan. Pakistan's involvement in luring young men to become cannon fodder receives critical attention (as does the influx of a more radical brand of Islam) and also, at times, its inability to fight and fulfill its professed intent to liberate the persecuted. However, the mainstay of the book is a showcasing, meticulous description, and indictment of the brutalization of a place where its own government (legitimate or otherwise) adopts a policy of systematic and harsh suppression to maintain political control. At the same time, the author also reflects and elaborates on how Kashmiri resistance to such brutalization has indigenous and organic roots and motivations. The novel graphically documents and narrates episodes of extreme violence - killings, torture, abductions, persecution and humiliation of Kashmiris by the Indian state that have also been so boldly captured in recent years by Basharat Peer's 'Curfewed Night,' Arundhati Roy's 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' and Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Haider.'
Mirza's language is deeply imbued with the melancholic autumnal colors of his beautiful valley. He is particularly poetic as he describes the gradual erosion of an idyllic part of the world - both physically and in spirit. When he juxtaposes the gentle, natural surroundings and innocent way of life with the harshness of a military subjugation, he displays remarkable eye for detail and talent for capturing the callously ridiculous. One particularly poignant chapter 'The Governor's Gift' describes the visit of a new, ugly and particularly despotic Governor to the village along with his fawning military and journalistic entourage. On a cold and dismal morning the entire population of the village (including infants, the aged, and the unwell) is forced to assemble and sit or squat for hours in an open, unsheltered space and listen to a long and vacuous speech under the menacing gaze of heavily armed military men.
"For God knows how long, then, the Governor ranted and railed in never-ending English sentences - was he showing off? - before an aching, yawning, scratching, moaning, farting crowd. He went on and on about the rightful place of Kashmir in the sacred vision of India."
This is a novel that will not appeal to those with rigid statist perspectives on life and they appear to be everywhere in these callous, jingoistic, majoritarian times. From a less parochial and more human perspective, however, one can't escape empathizing with the deep pathos of the story and the plight of the simple folk living close to the LOC as well as elsewhere in Kashmir. On almost a daily basis they are the ones who face the brunt of the conflict. At the same time, regardless of one's nationality, Mirza Waheed's narrative ought to force you to examine the quantum of duress and cruelty that is practiced in the name of unity, oneness, nationality and religion - in several parts of the world. On the other hand, the beauty of Mirza Waheed's prose and the deep sensitivity with which his narrator describes his home, his lost friends, the loss of his parents' dignity and that of his people, and the steady destruction of all that is beautiful in life, is truly heart-breaking.
One of the finest novels to have come out in recent years it remains deeply relevant today. It deserves much more attention than what some of the pretentious and largely soulless pieces of recent writing routinely get. The novel moves you, fully holds your attention, and forces you to question narrow, parochial, statist views of life - that are particularly dangerous in these toxic days. We are persuaded to reflect that at times there are very clear choices to be made by anyone with any conscience - between empathy and humanism on one side and blind nationalism and patriotism on the other.
The Collaborator is told through the eyes of a sensitive seventeen year old living in a small, remote and increasingly tormented village on the Indian side near the LOC at a time of heightened attrition and violence. We learn that it is an area frequently used by 'infiltrators' - a term used for young Kashmiri men (but also non-Kashmiris who may similarly cross the LOC in such manner) who leave home invariably as a reaction to their continued persecution, cross the border to get armed and trained, and then 'infiltrate' back to their home terrain. As a result, the area has a large Indian army presence and those trying to get back are routinely shot and killed. Many of them lie dead, decimated and unclaimed across a stretch of land that is in full view of distant army check posts on either side.
The narrator finds himself in a situation - after almost all his friends have left (he believes they have crossed over to Pakistan and is deeply aggrieved that he had no prior intimation and also that he was left behind) - where he is under compulsion to periodically visit the accursed stretch of land. His macabre task is to retrieve identification cards, weapons and other such items from the often badly damaged and decomposing bodies of the dead. His task master is a smartly turned out, heavy drinking, foul-mouthed young Captain Kadian whose pet peeve and stock justification for all the unsavory tasks he and his military men are performing, is Pakistan.
In this bleak and morbid context the narrator gradually introduces the readers to the beautiful coniferous forest covered mountains and streams steeped in mist, abiding friendships and playful days of adolescence, and a simple, reclusive, unhurried life in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. But peace has been a reluctant and infrequent visitor given how that part of the world has been the arena for the entrenched contestation and conflict between India and Pakistan. Pakistan's involvement in luring young men to become cannon fodder receives critical attention (as does the influx of a more radical brand of Islam) and also, at times, its inability to fight and fulfill its professed intent to liberate the persecuted. However, the mainstay of the book is a showcasing, meticulous description, and indictment of the brutalization of a place where its own government (legitimate or otherwise) adopts a policy of systematic and harsh suppression to maintain political control. At the same time, the author also reflects and elaborates on how Kashmiri resistance to such brutalization has indigenous and organic roots and motivations. The novel graphically documents and narrates episodes of extreme violence - killings, torture, abductions, persecution and humiliation of Kashmiris by the Indian state that have also been so boldly captured in recent years by Basharat Peer's 'Curfewed Night,' Arundhati Roy's 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' and Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Haider.'
Mirza's language is deeply imbued with the melancholic autumnal colors of his beautiful valley. He is particularly poetic as he describes the gradual erosion of an idyllic part of the world - both physically and in spirit. When he juxtaposes the gentle, natural surroundings and innocent way of life with the harshness of a military subjugation, he displays remarkable eye for detail and talent for capturing the callously ridiculous. One particularly poignant chapter 'The Governor's Gift' describes the visit of a new, ugly and particularly despotic Governor to the village along with his fawning military and journalistic entourage. On a cold and dismal morning the entire population of the village (including infants, the aged, and the unwell) is forced to assemble and sit or squat for hours in an open, unsheltered space and listen to a long and vacuous speech under the menacing gaze of heavily armed military men.
"For God knows how long, then, the Governor ranted and railed in never-ending English sentences - was he showing off? - before an aching, yawning, scratching, moaning, farting crowd. He went on and on about the rightful place of Kashmir in the sacred vision of India."
This is a novel that will not appeal to those with rigid statist perspectives on life and they appear to be everywhere in these callous, jingoistic, majoritarian times. From a less parochial and more human perspective, however, one can't escape empathizing with the deep pathos of the story and the plight of the simple folk living close to the LOC as well as elsewhere in Kashmir. On almost a daily basis they are the ones who face the brunt of the conflict. At the same time, regardless of one's nationality, Mirza Waheed's narrative ought to force you to examine the quantum of duress and cruelty that is practiced in the name of unity, oneness, nationality and religion - in several parts of the world. On the other hand, the beauty of Mirza Waheed's prose and the deep sensitivity with which his narrator describes his home, his lost friends, the loss of his parents' dignity and that of his people, and the steady destruction of all that is beautiful in life, is truly heart-breaking.
One of the finest novels to have come out in recent years it remains deeply relevant today. It deserves much more attention than what some of the pretentious and largely soulless pieces of recent writing routinely get. The novel moves you, fully holds your attention, and forces you to question narrow, parochial, statist views of life - that are particularly dangerous in these toxic days. We are persuaded to reflect that at times there are very clear choices to be made by anyone with any conscience - between empathy and humanism on one side and blind nationalism and patriotism on the other.
March 15, 2017
Kashmir is the eyes of a mother forced to helplessly witness her son being tortured and dragged away into the night, it's the footsteps of a schoolboy that could not find their way back home, it's the hours when innocence gets wasted playing Army vs. Militants, it's the heart of a girl whose lover has crossed over to Pakistan to become a militant, it's the ego that receives a blow each time the body is frisked, it's the youth that idolizes Hizbul Mujahideen, it's the father who is stripped off his dignity before his son, it's the sight that gets lost everyday to pellet guns, it's the exodus of kashmiri pandits, it's the people who just disappeared, it's the wives who are half-widows, it's the walls and windows that scream "Azadi" (freedom), it's the distant dream of a displaced Pandit to return to his beloved homeland, it's the disturbingly unforgettable memory of "Kunan Poshpora" and "Gaw Kadal". Kashmir is Jhelum.
In this powerful book, Mirza Waheed captures the reality of Kashmir and Kashmiris, fictionalizing a horrendous truth that cannot be concealed any longer. One can only hope that the world would finally listen.
Just one word reverberates through every sentence:
Azadi
Azadi
Azadi
In this powerful book, Mirza Waheed captures the reality of Kashmir and Kashmiris, fictionalizing a horrendous truth that cannot be concealed any longer. One can only hope that the world would finally listen.
Just one word reverberates through every sentence:
Azadi
Azadi
Azadi
May 1, 2012
If this book was not our book club read I would not finished it. It took to chapter 13 before the writer engaged me. At that point things started to happen and I began to feel for the characters and the village. The story is intense, interesting, and very sad and the author did get under my skin, however the ending was a big let down for me. I thought I had missed something and re-read the last two chapters again! I think there was possibly a good story to be told and felt it was let down with over descriptive writing and a poor ending. At our group someone asked who picked this book and someone else replied ‘more to the point who published it’!
March 11, 2015
3.5/5. Good but way short of the class of Khaled Hosseini. The start of terrorism (early 90s) in Kashmir is told from the POV of a 17 year old boy living in a border village. Having read Rahul Pandita, Basharat Peer, Kamleshwar etc on Kashmir, A few questions that came up in my mind :-
A) The valley was largely peaceful till the end of 1980s. Did Talibani fundamentalism get imported into Kashmir from Afghanistan via Zia-ul-Haq's radical Pakistan ? Why did 'freedom fighters' kill civilians mostly from minority community ?
B) The brutal forced exodus of all 3.5 lac Hindu Kashmiri Pandits forced out from their homeland in the same timeframe by other Kasmiris is mentioned just passively in the book in a couple of sentences. Even Governor Jagmohan's past is dealt with a lot more detail. Hopefully, it is a feeling of shame that led to this topic being avoided in the book.
C) There is burning contempt for the Indian army because of human rights violations and that they 'catch-and-kill' 'youngsters'. How else is an army supposed to deal with insurgents if not 'catch-and-kill'. Infact the Indian army as per the author himself became involved once this movement picked up and not the other way round.
D) Kashmir acceded to India in 1947 to save itself from the brutal invasion from Pak. After 40 years, how can India allow 2-nation theory be repeated ? And do Kashmiris realise where does it place their co-religionists in India living peacefully. And Kashmiri legislature as of this date rejects 'secularism'.
E) In the book 'ghairat' (self-respect) was mentioned with anger. I hope someday processions will be carried out refusing the Central govt aid money which forms 88% of d state budget. And allow investments to come in state for lasting prosperity.
A) The valley was largely peaceful till the end of 1980s. Did Talibani fundamentalism get imported into Kashmir from Afghanistan via Zia-ul-Haq's radical Pakistan ? Why did 'freedom fighters' kill civilians mostly from minority community ?
B) The brutal forced exodus of all 3.5 lac Hindu Kashmiri Pandits forced out from their homeland in the same timeframe by other Kasmiris is mentioned just passively in the book in a couple of sentences. Even Governor Jagmohan's past is dealt with a lot more detail. Hopefully, it is a feeling of shame that led to this topic being avoided in the book.
C) There is burning contempt for the Indian army because of human rights violations and that they 'catch-and-kill' 'youngsters'. How else is an army supposed to deal with insurgents if not 'catch-and-kill'. Infact the Indian army as per the author himself became involved once this movement picked up and not the other way round.
D) Kashmir acceded to India in 1947 to save itself from the brutal invasion from Pak. After 40 years, how can India allow 2-nation theory be repeated ? And do Kashmiris realise where does it place their co-religionists in India living peacefully. And Kashmiri legislature as of this date rejects 'secularism'.
E) In the book 'ghairat' (self-respect) was mentioned with anger. I hope someday processions will be carried out refusing the Central govt aid money which forms 88% of d state budget. And allow investments to come in state for lasting prosperity.
July 17, 2014
Reading this book is like having a bad dream, a very bad dream. And the nightmare is only made worse by the realization that waking up won't make things any better-- because despite being painted in the colours of fiction, it is all real. It has already happened. Here. In Kashmir.In ways similar, or different, or worse.
The prose is dark and intense. The unnamed protagonist, with his flawed character, now courageous, now cowardly and yet, always human... a soul who now has friends only in his memory is a chilling figure to behold. The flashbacks pull the reader into an abyss of nostalgia, of longing, for how things used to be. The village before the exodus, the valley before its dead, Kashmir before the destruction-- the images are vivid and make you want to find a way back into the blissful past.
There's something about this book that leaves you deeply, almost irrevocably, unhappy. Waheed chooses his words well.
The prose is dark and intense. The unnamed protagonist, with his flawed character, now courageous, now cowardly and yet, always human... a soul who now has friends only in his memory is a chilling figure to behold. The flashbacks pull the reader into an abyss of nostalgia, of longing, for how things used to be. The village before the exodus, the valley before its dead, Kashmir before the destruction-- the images are vivid and make you want to find a way back into the blissful past.
There's something about this book that leaves you deeply, almost irrevocably, unhappy. Waheed chooses his words well.
November 24, 2011
I was reading this book around the same time the stories of the mass graves in Kashmir were coming out--making the reading all the more chilling and timely. Mirza Waheed is able to discuss the horrors and ugliness of the Kashmiri reality over the past few decades without falling into the cliched tropes that this type of writing usually entails. The writing is raw and yet lyrical at the same time. A beautiful first novel from the author!
July 11, 2020
"Nothing shall remain here"
Kashmir! We as a world as a people r sorry, one day, some day, not now, not yet, Love and Peace will rule supreme! Amen!
Kashmir! We as a world as a people r sorry, one day, some day, not now, not yet, Love and Peace will rule supreme! Amen!
March 23, 2025
Just finished The Collaborator for my South Asian lit quiz tomorrow and I’m still absorbing the weight of it😭😭😭.
May 11, 2011
This novel is narrated by an unnamed young man, the son of a headman in a small predominantly Muslim village in Indian controlled Kashmir in the early 1990s, whose four closest childhood friends have crossed the border into Pakistan to become freedom fighters after brutal government reprisals against the separatist movement. After a particularly violent crackdown by the Indian Army, the young man is "encouraged" by the local army captain and his humiliated and defeated father to work as a special assistant to the captain, in opposition to the militants and his own desire to join them.
The narrator then travels back to his idyllic and carefree childhood with his friends and family, before the appointment of the virulently anti-Muslim head of Kashmir and the electoral fraud that served as triggers to the uprisings that led to the bloody conflict throughout the region. The villagers suffer great hardship, as the Indian Army brutally punishes the families whose sons have joined the separatist movement, aided by local collaborators (not including the narrator). As the conflict becomes more intense and more villagers are tortured or killed, each family and each person must decide to stay in the village, or flee to an unknown destination, and an uncertain destiny. The narrator is also torn between loyalty to his father, who begs with his son to stay in the village and work for the Indian Army captain who regularly insults and tortures his people, and his desire for revenge and justice for his friends and neighbors.
The Collaborator is a superb and gripping debut novel, which is also an insightful and instructive book about the recent crisis in Kashmir, which I found difficult to put down after the first 20 pages.
The narrator then travels back to his idyllic and carefree childhood with his friends and family, before the appointment of the virulently anti-Muslim head of Kashmir and the electoral fraud that served as triggers to the uprisings that led to the bloody conflict throughout the region. The villagers suffer great hardship, as the Indian Army brutally punishes the families whose sons have joined the separatist movement, aided by local collaborators (not including the narrator). As the conflict becomes more intense and more villagers are tortured or killed, each family and each person must decide to stay in the village, or flee to an unknown destination, and an uncertain destiny. The narrator is also torn between loyalty to his father, who begs with his son to stay in the village and work for the Indian Army captain who regularly insults and tortures his people, and his desire for revenge and justice for his friends and neighbors.
The Collaborator is a superb and gripping debut novel, which is also an insightful and instructive book about the recent crisis in Kashmir, which I found difficult to put down after the first 20 pages.
January 18, 2023
A devastating novel consisting of thriller and mystery. If I'd have to name this novel in one word,it would be "Separation".This novel is all about Love,destruction,Friendship,Promises,Childhood, Separation,Horror,Emotions and Life. This novel is breathtakingly amazing. You people really should give it a try.
January 2, 2024
My first book for pleasure since I started my PhD 🤠
February 16, 2025
We've all seen the news. We've all read the facts. But we've not seen a 19 year old who wishes everyday that when he goes to work, he doesn't see his friends. Seeing them would confirm his worst fears.
Mirza Waheed does an excellent job of leaving you with more questions than answers by the end of it. Just be ready to block out some time after reading it. You'll need it.
Mirza Waheed does an excellent job of leaving you with more questions than answers by the end of it. Just be ready to block out some time after reading it. You'll need it.
January 8, 2026
My colonized mind cannot comprehend
My heart, dejected, cannot voice
The despair my oppressor has cast on me
My heart, dejected, cannot voice
The despair my oppressor has cast on me
I kill you and maim you and rape you and burn you and leave your bullet-torn bodies, naked and unburied, in the dirt and snow, so my job's done and I will go home now.
November 16, 2015
This was a real disappointment. I was hoping for a balanced novel about the separatist struggle for Kashmir, that could provide an explanation of the history of the continuing conflict between India and Pakistan. However although it shed some light and was often heart-rending and brutal in detail in relation to the oppression of Kashmiri Muslims by India, it's portrayal of the central teenage character too often read as a simplistic YA novel that was naive and just far too one sided politically. Effectively India all bad with no shade of grey in amongst the darkness. Even if the central political points remained the same, that India has always been in the wrong since partition and that its troops have committed gross war crimes which have never been brought to account, the novel would have been much more effective if it had had at least one Indian character that was not a caricature-esque complete and utter bastard.
November 15, 2011
In The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed the unnamed narrator flashbacks to his tranquil and lighthearted childhood with his friends and family, before the selection of the anti-Muslim leader of Kashmir and the electoral deception that served as a trigger to the rebellion that led to conflict throughout the region. The villagers suffer great hardship and the narrator is torn between loyalty to his father, who wants his son to stay in the village, and his desire for revenge and justice for his friends and neighbors. Excellent Read !!
5 ++++ Stars
5 ++++ Stars
December 10, 2014
Unlike most opinion pieces, books and stories about Kashmir, this novel doesn't come from a Pakistani or an Indian author. It comes from a Kashmiri who has witnessed the plight of his people firsthand and weaves a poignant tale to depict the pain and the suffering.
I have finished the novel just as India has upped its rhetoric on Kashmir and Pakistan is gearing up for another bout of proxy Jihad in the region. Sadly, once again, Kashmir and Kashmiris figures nowhere in attempts for a viable solution.
I have finished the novel just as India has upped its rhetoric on Kashmir and Pakistan is gearing up for another bout of proxy Jihad in the region. Sadly, once again, Kashmir and Kashmiris figures nowhere in attempts for a viable solution.
June 6, 2013
A disappointment indeed.
Poor story with lengthy, over written unnecessary descriptions which just so fail to grap reader's imagination. Real bad sketches of the characters, i hardly felt bad for anyone... despite those lengthy explanations, i still could not imagine any bond between the relationships.
It fails in engaging the reader from beginning till the end, what worse could be the scenario?
Poor story with lengthy, over written unnecessary descriptions which just so fail to grap reader's imagination. Real bad sketches of the characters, i hardly felt bad for anyone... despite those lengthy explanations, i still could not imagine any bond between the relationships.
It fails in engaging the reader from beginning till the end, what worse could be the scenario?
February 29, 2012
harrowing story based in both 1990's/modern day Kashmir with life on the line of control and the increasing disappearance of young boys to pakistan and increasing indian army movement well worth reading if you like the kite runner as in similar vein
June 13, 2013
A beautifully rendered novel about Kashmir, Waheed's narrative humanizes a story that is often silenced. More importantly, the novel presents wonderfully flawed characters, especially the protagonist, that forces the reader to reflect. A great novel to read for pleasure and for the classroom.
February 7, 2011
My review here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hor...
November 20, 2015
Enjoyed the subject of this, but not the style of storytelling. I found it hard to connect with the narrator, and kept losing focus.
June 16, 2020
The book is a lyrical tale of suffering and caught-in-the-middle oppression. When we talk about Kashmir conflict, we only talk about what Pakistan did and what India did...we never talk about Kashmiris. The things they have gone through, and still do. This book goes to a length to justify the hate Kashmiri Muslims have for India, the brutality with which human rights are violated, how families are scattered, and villages are upended.
Firstly, I would like to talk about the writing style - because that was the major reason I continued this book and finished it in one or two go. The author has used a narration that is impregnated with hate and justified with suffering is almost a visual picture through words. The vocabulary isn't pretentious and with just the right word used at just the right place never ceased the flow of how a reader must feel along with the narrator.
Secondly, the story - I felt it lacked responsibility here and there. The book was widely published in India and has amassed a huge Indian readership and the book didn't do justice by their side. But then again, one book can't do justice to all the people, only the people it is about. A seventeen-year-old, unnamed narrator, son of the headman of the village, takes us up and down the valley in Nawgam village near LoC.
In the present, he works for a hateful Indian Army captain Kadian, doing his dirty work - that is picking stuff (mostly ammunition and IDs) off the dead (shot-off) insurgents crossing the border from the Azad Kashmir or Pakistan. In the past, the boys who crossed the border to train and become militants in Pakistan had been normal Kashmiri boys, enraged by the Indian Army's brutal treatment of the Kashmiri people. The narrator had lost his four friends to this movement who crossed the border to become militants and the narrator, down the valley, picking stuff off the shot dead is looking for his friends among them. And story unfurls in Now and Then...how did the entire Nawgam village was deserted except for the narrator his father and mother. In the 'Then', we see how a perfectly happy and ambitious boy is left all alone and is seen befriending an old man Noor Khan and even he leaves him alone.
It is painful to read that the Army we were taught to worship ever since our childhood would be up to things like these. It was very smartly explained the mechanics of torture from the Indian Army and brain-washing from the Pakistan side that lead to insurgence and anti-nationalism.
But here is where the story becomes one-sided...there are a hundred things Indian Army would do but not one that might endanger the security of the country. The spread of Talibani fundamentalism in Kashmir in the '80s changed how the valley resided. We won't hear about that in this book. The greatest exodus in human history of the Kashmiri Pandits at the hands of the Muslims was called 'tragic' in fleeting sentences. THE NARRATION ISN'T BALANCED FOR AN INDIAN READER. There are multiple sides to every story and this one dealt with one side of one story.
The book got darker with every page. I had to keep the book away at times just to shake off the feeling of shame. There mothers crying for milk for their children, children dying of hunger, the only son of the family beheaded, a loneliness that could eat up a person from inside, lost love, friendship, and the exodus of an entire village.
I want to talk about the ending...so if you haven't read the book, stop right here. I might spoil it for you.
The ending, for me, was very symbolic and justified. I loved the ending, although I read many reviews of how they didn't like the ending. The book tries to end in the assassination of the hateful captain Kadian, who has grown into some sort of one-sided friendship with the narrator. The narrator is behind the drunk captain in his room, with a gun, ready to shoot and run. But the captain plays Rafi's song, Hussain's favorite, and the narrator stops. I think here, the narrator sees the person the captain is...however monstrous he is, he is made. He likes the same song his brother, his soulmate, Hussain loved. I think the narrator deals with it more maturely here than he had in the past. It also gave the narrator a moral high-ground...and saved him from being a hypocrite. It saved the whole book from justifying militancy and insurgency.
The ending where he cremates the corpses were highly symbolic of how he had become a man and his character got more dimension. In the beginning, the captain says that if he cremates the corpses, the Kashmiris would be upon him for the desecration of the corpses, and providing a proper burial would be a lot of work...despite the copious amount of men in the camp who could do the job in just about few hours if they put themselves to it.
So, the lone kid, who thought that his dead corps friends were better off burnt than filling up the bellies of scavengers, or be left there for a show for Pakistani outpost. It was better for them to burn and not be desecrated any further. There the boy became an adult who didn't cry about it but took things in his own hands.
The book ends just with that and leaves the readers to imagine the lonely life of the narrator, and his parents in a deserted village, under a ruthless governor.
Firstly, I would like to talk about the writing style - because that was the major reason I continued this book and finished it in one or two go. The author has used a narration that is impregnated with hate and justified with suffering is almost a visual picture through words. The vocabulary isn't pretentious and with just the right word used at just the right place never ceased the flow of how a reader must feel along with the narrator.
Secondly, the story - I felt it lacked responsibility here and there. The book was widely published in India and has amassed a huge Indian readership and the book didn't do justice by their side. But then again, one book can't do justice to all the people, only the people it is about. A seventeen-year-old, unnamed narrator, son of the headman of the village, takes us up and down the valley in Nawgam village near LoC.
In the present, he works for a hateful Indian Army captain Kadian, doing his dirty work - that is picking stuff (mostly ammunition and IDs) off the dead (shot-off) insurgents crossing the border from the Azad Kashmir or Pakistan. In the past, the boys who crossed the border to train and become militants in Pakistan had been normal Kashmiri boys, enraged by the Indian Army's brutal treatment of the Kashmiri people. The narrator had lost his four friends to this movement who crossed the border to become militants and the narrator, down the valley, picking stuff off the shot dead is looking for his friends among them. And story unfurls in Now and Then...how did the entire Nawgam village was deserted except for the narrator his father and mother. In the 'Then', we see how a perfectly happy and ambitious boy is left all alone and is seen befriending an old man Noor Khan and even he leaves him alone.
It is painful to read that the Army we were taught to worship ever since our childhood would be up to things like these. It was very smartly explained the mechanics of torture from the Indian Army and brain-washing from the Pakistan side that lead to insurgence and anti-nationalism.
But here is where the story becomes one-sided...there are a hundred things Indian Army would do but not one that might endanger the security of the country. The spread of Talibani fundamentalism in Kashmir in the '80s changed how the valley resided. We won't hear about that in this book. The greatest exodus in human history of the Kashmiri Pandits at the hands of the Muslims was called 'tragic' in fleeting sentences. THE NARRATION ISN'T BALANCED FOR AN INDIAN READER. There are multiple sides to every story and this one dealt with one side of one story.
The book got darker with every page. I had to keep the book away at times just to shake off the feeling of shame. There mothers crying for milk for their children, children dying of hunger, the only son of the family beheaded, a loneliness that could eat up a person from inside, lost love, friendship, and the exodus of an entire village.
I want to talk about the ending...so if you haven't read the book, stop right here. I might spoil it for you.
The ending, for me, was very symbolic and justified. I loved the ending, although I read many reviews of how they didn't like the ending. The book tries to end in the assassination of the hateful captain Kadian, who has grown into some sort of one-sided friendship with the narrator. The narrator is behind the drunk captain in his room, with a gun, ready to shoot and run. But the captain plays Rafi's song, Hussain's favorite, and the narrator stops. I think here, the narrator sees the person the captain is...however monstrous he is, he is made. He likes the same song his brother, his soulmate, Hussain loved. I think the narrator deals with it more maturely here than he had in the past. It also gave the narrator a moral high-ground...and saved him from being a hypocrite. It saved the whole book from justifying militancy and insurgency.
The ending where he cremates the corpses were highly symbolic of how he had become a man and his character got more dimension. In the beginning, the captain says that if he cremates the corpses, the Kashmiris would be upon him for the desecration of the corpses, and providing a proper burial would be a lot of work...despite the copious amount of men in the camp who could do the job in just about few hours if they put themselves to it.
So, the lone kid, who thought that his dead corps friends were better off burnt than filling up the bellies of scavengers, or be left there for a show for Pakistani outpost. It was better for them to burn and not be desecrated any further. There the boy became an adult who didn't cry about it but took things in his own hands.
The book ends just with that and leaves the readers to imagine the lonely life of the narrator, and his parents in a deserted village, under a ruthless governor.
February 26, 2018
Actual rating- 3.5
*This review was initially published at The Readdicts Book Blog. For more reviews, go here .
Like most books I have been reading since the past few months, The Collaborator had been sitting on my shelf for years. When I picked it from my TBR jar, I was more than happy to finally get to it. I don't remember reading reviews of the book as the sole reason I bought it was because it is set in Kashmir and as a topic that interests me, I feel disappointed to say that I haven't read many such books.
When I finally started reading The Collaborator, I was slightly let down by its slow pace. While author Mirza Waheed's writing is beautiful and he portrays melancholy in a way that's admirable and inspiring, I felt the story itself lacked not only pace, but interest as well, somewhere. It seemed to me like it was not moving.
Don't get me wrong, I love all the knowledge I gained from this book, because- and again, this is something I am ashamed of- I never really followed what happened in Kashmir. My sole explanation for this is the fact that I was too young, which isn't always a good excuse. Anyway, so while I did learn a lot; some things which I will never forget, some pictures that'll never erase from my mind, I felt like things were moving too slowly because I never though I'd take almost a month to finish this book.
The Collaborator is told from the point of view of young seventeen year old boy whose name we never get to know, which for me, is true art. Employed by Captian Kadian to look after the dead bodies literally tossed across the border, left behind by all his friends who go away to become militants, this young boy is a hero. I found him to be so relatable, because when I put myself in his place, I would've probably done what he did.
Overall, The Collaborator is a poignant read that gives a brilliant insight into life in Kashmir, and author Mirza Waheed's melancholic writing is beautifully depressing.
*This review was initially published at The Readdicts Book Blog. For more reviews, go here .
Like most books I have been reading since the past few months, The Collaborator had been sitting on my shelf for years. When I picked it from my TBR jar, I was more than happy to finally get to it. I don't remember reading reviews of the book as the sole reason I bought it was because it is set in Kashmir and as a topic that interests me, I feel disappointed to say that I haven't read many such books.
When I finally started reading The Collaborator, I was slightly let down by its slow pace. While author Mirza Waheed's writing is beautiful and he portrays melancholy in a way that's admirable and inspiring, I felt the story itself lacked not only pace, but interest as well, somewhere. It seemed to me like it was not moving.
Don't get me wrong, I love all the knowledge I gained from this book, because- and again, this is something I am ashamed of- I never really followed what happened in Kashmir. My sole explanation for this is the fact that I was too young, which isn't always a good excuse. Anyway, so while I did learn a lot; some things which I will never forget, some pictures that'll never erase from my mind, I felt like things were moving too slowly because I never though I'd take almost a month to finish this book.
The Collaborator is told from the point of view of young seventeen year old boy whose name we never get to know, which for me, is true art. Employed by Captian Kadian to look after the dead bodies literally tossed across the border, left behind by all his friends who go away to become militants, this young boy is a hero. I found him to be so relatable, because when I put myself in his place, I would've probably done what he did.
Overall, The Collaborator is a poignant read that gives a brilliant insight into life in Kashmir, and author Mirza Waheed's melancholic writing is beautifully depressing.
September 6, 2020
The Collaborator is set in Kashmir, along the India-Pakistan border. Our main character is a teen who is working with the Indian army who occupy Kashmir. He navigates the wasteland of the landscape he grew up in, collecting what possessions he can from the bodies that litter it, and hating both himself and his boss as he does so. His closest school friends have crossed the border to train as freedom fighters, and he struggles to know why they excluded him from this plan, and whether they've done the right thing.
The author tells the story of what happened to the people of Kashmir in devastating prose. The reader sees the impact of the conflict and occupation first on the militants who are fighting the occupation and lie dead, but then through the eyes of a mother watching her son be taken away, the women who have been raped and cannot feed their children as their food has been seized, the communities of elders who are disrespected and abused. It's a tough read, but a necessary one to help understand this part of history.
I found the book very emotive and well written. It takes you through the loss of innocence both of a teenage boy and an entire village; both are forced to engage in and watch military brutality. I found the book a little slow at times, which is why I gave it 4 stars, but the images of the landscape that the narrator had to deal with feel like something that will stick with me for a long time.
The author tells the story of what happened to the people of Kashmir in devastating prose. The reader sees the impact of the conflict and occupation first on the militants who are fighting the occupation and lie dead, but then through the eyes of a mother watching her son be taken away, the women who have been raped and cannot feed their children as their food has been seized, the communities of elders who are disrespected and abused. It's a tough read, but a necessary one to help understand this part of history.
I found the book very emotive and well written. It takes you through the loss of innocence both of a teenage boy and an entire village; both are forced to engage in and watch military brutality. I found the book a little slow at times, which is why I gave it 4 stars, but the images of the landscape that the narrator had to deal with feel like something that will stick with me for a long time.
June 25, 2020
The curse of insurgency has finally seeped into the distant village of Nowgam in Kashmir. One by one, the young boys have started to go missing to join militant groups beyond the border. The village has started losing its usual face. Everyday a new tragedy unravels through torture and murder of old men and women.
The narrator is the only one among his friends who haven't crossed the border. Initially he is dealing the loss of his friends with whom he grew up and spent countless evenings in the valley, singing and playing cricket. But before he can grieve the loss of his best friends, the villagers decide to leave Nowgam that has turned into a customary deathbed. But the narrator's father, the headman refuses to leave the village that he has build through years of pain and affection. Being the last residents, the author and his family embarks into a journey of excruciating trauma and beating isolation.
Mirza Waheed has brilliantly brought in the ethereal beauty of the valleys and forests of Kashmir in his writing. He contrasts the heavenly ambience alongside the ominous reality of the lives in Kashmir. The psychological trauma of loss and isolation is so well-depicted that it haunts you even after you've finished the book.
In the afterword the author reminds us that since 1989, 70,000 Kashmiris have been murdered and 8000 have disappeared. The author delineates the loss of five boys; how many more do we know? How many can we ever know?
The narrator is the only one among his friends who haven't crossed the border. Initially he is dealing the loss of his friends with whom he grew up and spent countless evenings in the valley, singing and playing cricket. But before he can grieve the loss of his best friends, the villagers decide to leave Nowgam that has turned into a customary deathbed. But the narrator's father, the headman refuses to leave the village that he has build through years of pain and affection. Being the last residents, the author and his family embarks into a journey of excruciating trauma and beating isolation.
Mirza Waheed has brilliantly brought in the ethereal beauty of the valleys and forests of Kashmir in his writing. He contrasts the heavenly ambience alongside the ominous reality of the lives in Kashmir. The psychological trauma of loss and isolation is so well-depicted that it haunts you even after you've finished the book.
In the afterword the author reminds us that since 1989, 70,000 Kashmiris have been murdered and 8000 have disappeared. The author delineates the loss of five boys; how many more do we know? How many can we ever know?
February 4, 2021
I found this book mesmerising in so many ways. It did not try to do too much - it told the story of how one family in particular was affected by the civil strife in Kashmir. And it did it so beautifully ... interwoven with sections of horror, bloodshed and death were images of the iontense beauty of the valley and the effect it had had on the 'speaker' (whose name you never know) throughout his childhood and early adolescence.
The writing is beautiful and so so sad. As a Moslem Member of the Gujjar nomadic group who had settled in Kashmir after Partition, it is clear that his anger is levelled at the Indian state (and army especially) ... and yet he is unable to kill his target Indian as he hears him play the music of one of the speaker's most treasured (Muslim) singers ......and his clarity of good and bad people is blurred.
The sense of loss hovers over the book from the very start - his childhood Kashmir, his friends, the bodies of the young fighters whose ID he has to retrieve, the people he knows who he sees murdered. All this alongside listening patiently to the rage against the Pakistanis that he has to listen to nightly from his Indian army boss.
Although technically I learned more from Arundhati Roy's novel, i found this more moving and engaging.
The uthor's first novel too!
The writing is beautiful and so so sad. As a Moslem Member of the Gujjar nomadic group who had settled in Kashmir after Partition, it is clear that his anger is levelled at the Indian state (and army especially) ... and yet he is unable to kill his target Indian as he hears him play the music of one of the speaker's most treasured (Muslim) singers ......and his clarity of good and bad people is blurred.
The sense of loss hovers over the book from the very start - his childhood Kashmir, his friends, the bodies of the young fighters whose ID he has to retrieve, the people he knows who he sees murdered. All this alongside listening patiently to the rage against the Pakistanis that he has to listen to nightly from his Indian army boss.
Although technically I learned more from Arundhati Roy's novel, i found this more moving and engaging.
The uthor's first novel too!
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