Zieba's Look Into My World
“They made me invisible, shrouded and non-being
A shadow, no existence, made silent and unseeing
Denied of freedom, confined to my cage
Tell me how to handle my anger and my rage?”
Zieba Shorish-Shamley, ("Look into my World”)
Zieba’s quote about the state of a woman’s life in Afghan made me shiver in pain. Afghanistan has been a literal playground for religious fanatics to meddle with the lives of innocent people. I’ve grown up reading reports and articles of the atrocities committed in the name of religion, the religion in question being Islam. The Islam I know is peaceful religion. It’s the people who are violent. At one point I stopped following such stories and articles. When this book came up for review I couldn’t just let it pass.
The …show more content…
story is set primarily in Kabul. Technically, as far as I’ve read up, Kabul is a Taliban strong hold. Our protagonist Anzan, a Nepali-Indian journalist is on deputation to train young print and broadcast journalists. During his stay there, he fosters a friendship with an American, who is with the Ministry of Youth. A bomb explodes in the American’s room and he is instantly killed. Anzan investigates his death by putting to use his journalist instincts.
The plot was layered very well and was devoid of logical loopholes.
The pacing was a tad slow but it was justified by actual plot in itself. A good mystery should be unwrapped patiently and savored bite by bite like chocolate. That’s precisely what this writer has managed to achieve. In the process of uncovering the mystery, he managed to blend in flavors of loss, love and friendship to the story. Each suspect was justified with motive and means. The writer made stellar use of the motive part of the story to elaborate about Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the involvement of American. He has also put to use the internal conflicts among the Muslims – The infamous rivalry between Shia and Sunni Muslims. The writing was spot on. Given the subject and the setting, it is an easier alternative to weave an emotional tale of loss and pain. Surprisingly, this writer picked the difficult route by keeping the emotions in check and taking a methodical-logical approach to solve the murder. The characterization was also perfect. I did find it a bit difficult to understand the crux of each character initially but, the as the story progressed, the writer kept adding dimensions to each character. I was surprised to note that this book is self-published. The cover could have been better. That is my only qualm with the
book.
A shadow, no existence, made silent and unseeing
Denied of freedom, confined to my cage
Tell me how to handle my anger and my rage?”
Zieba Shorish-Shamley, ("Look into my World”)
Zieba’s quote about the state of a woman’s life in Afghan made me shiver in pain. Afghanistan has been a literal playground for religious fanatics to meddle with the lives of innocent people. I’ve grown up reading reports and articles of the atrocities committed in the name of religion, the religion in question being Islam. The Islam I know is peaceful religion. It’s the people who are violent. At one point I stopped following such stories and articles. When this book came up for review I couldn’t just let it pass.
The …show more content…
story is set primarily in Kabul. Technically, as far as I’ve read up, Kabul is a Taliban strong hold. Our protagonist Anzan, a Nepali-Indian journalist is on deputation to train young print and broadcast journalists. During his stay there, he fosters a friendship with an American, who is with the Ministry of Youth. A bomb explodes in the American’s room and he is instantly killed. Anzan investigates his death by putting to use his journalist instincts.
The plot was layered very well and was devoid of logical loopholes.
The pacing was a tad slow but it was justified by actual plot in itself. A good mystery should be unwrapped patiently and savored bite by bite like chocolate. That’s precisely what this writer has managed to achieve. In the process of uncovering the mystery, he managed to blend in flavors of loss, love and friendship to the story. Each suspect was justified with motive and means. The writer made stellar use of the motive part of the story to elaborate about Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the involvement of American. He has also put to use the internal conflicts among the Muslims – The infamous rivalry between Shia and Sunni Muslims. The writing was spot on. Given the subject and the setting, it is an easier alternative to weave an emotional tale of loss and pain. Surprisingly, this writer picked the difficult route by keeping the emotions in check and taking a methodical-logical approach to solve the murder. The characterization was also perfect. I did find it a bit difficult to understand the crux of each character initially but, the as the story progressed, the writer kept adding dimensions to each character. I was surprised to note that this book is self-published. The cover could have been better. That is my only qualm with the
book.