In the city of Srinagar, in disputed Kashmir, Faiz paints papier-m che pencil boxes for wealthy tourists while beautiful, beguiling Roohi prays for the boy of her dreams to take her away. In the evenings Faiz and Roohi meet - without their parents' permission - and talk.
Mirza Waheed was born and brought up in Kashmir. His debut novel The Collaborator was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Shakti Bhat Prize, and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. It was also book of the year for the Telegraph, New Statesman, Financial Times, Business Standard and Telegraph India. Waheed has written for the BBC, the Guardian, Granta, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times. He lives in London.
A haunting illustration of how, at the end of last century, normal
life became impossible for many of those who call Kashmir home . .
. Waheed's talent lies in the vivid, convincing detail he brings to
descriptions of everyday lives. The careful meshing of domestic
intimacy with political events is done deftly, with integrity. Like
his great-grandfather's gold painting, Waheed's work will
undoubtedly endure
*Financial Times*
Waheed writes about war with a devastating and unflinching calm,
with the melancholy wisdom of someone attuned to but never hardened
by its horrors . . . He has a formidable insight into his large
cast of characters, from the elegant grief-stricken principal of
the girls' school taken over by Indian officers to the spoilt
boy-turned-insurgent who betrays his own father
*Guardian*
A harrowing tale of love in a time of conflict and change . . . The
language in this book is lyrical, indeed at times it seems to be
poetry masquerading as prose. The Book of Gold Leaves is the sort
of book one can read and re-read - and then read again
*News on Sunday*
A dazzling and heart-breaking story set in war-torn Kashmir -
essential reading
*Stylist*
Waheed writes about Kashmir with compassion, not anger . . . [and]
one finds a strange and terrible beauty. There are no heroes or
villains in this exquisite book, just a palpable grief for what
might have been
*India Today, 'Books of the Year'*
A beautifully told and finely choreographed story of love, art and
conflict in Kashmir
*Guardian, Books of the Year*
Waheed's new novel returns to 1990s Kashmir. If The Collaborator
was journalistic in its zeal to explain Kashmir . . . [here] what
keeps you reading is the story. He relies on family dynamics to
drive the action . . . it's ultimately how the novel accounts for
the moral toll of war
*Sunday Telegraph*
Poetic and political with a warm sensuousness, The Book of Gold
Leaves is the year's best book. As beautifully written as the
paintings on papier mache that one of its central characters
executes, this fine examination of the Kashmiri condition through a
Sunni-Shia love story leaves the reader both wretched and
transformed, and brings us to a greater understanding of the
fragility of love in a harsh climate
*Hindustan Times, 'Books of the Year'*
Like the gold leaves of the book's title, Waheed's prose is like
pixie dust, sprinkled all over a city of heartbreak and despair. It
is a city that has found in Waheed, the great-grandson of a
much-admired papier-mache artist, its truest troubadour. Read him
and weep.
*India Today*
A romance set against the backdrop of unrest in the Kashmiri valley
in the 1990s, Waheed's second novel explores the reasons behind
young men taking to bloodshed
*Scroll India, 'Books of the Year'*
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