Krishna
This is an interesting book. It is a thriller, and a page turner of sorts (does not always succeed but tried to be…) but set in a very unusual background. The story revolves around Afghanistan, after the 9/11 when US is trying to dislodge Taliban with the help of the Northern Alliance, and also trying to capture Osama Bin Laden. Of course, this was written way before the current events.
The story revolves around Stan Kelly, an American Reporter who has covered a lot of war zones but is now ‘put to pasture’ covering inconsequential news in the US for a local paper. He is now suddenly in demand because newspapers cannot find enough people with the knowledge of Asia and Middle East to cover this area and is sent out to get some local story in Afghanistan. The idea is to get to Pakistan’s Peshawar and go through the porous North East border into Afghanistan.
After a fiasco with a local translator and guide (‘fixer”) he hires Najeeb Azam, with whom he forms a close bond. Najeeb himself is battling many issues, his sojourn in US and the values he learned there clashing with the Pushtun values his family firmly believes in. He also does the unpardonable offence of meeting alone and falling in love with Daliya, who is from Islamabad, banished to Peshawar to live with conservative relatives to learn values, after a minor rebellion of her own. To compound the ‘horror‘, he has a premarital relationship with her. He also is at war with his own father, having once rebelled against his strict discipline and at another time, having betrayed his not very legal activities to ISI, the FBI equivalent of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s ISI has got its claws into Najeeb and compels him to spy on the movements of Stan Kelly whom he is guiding.
The story takes off after the move into Afghanistan, and the treachery and rebellion are well told. The local colour comes across as authentic and for a while, you have a ringside view of the belief systems in that part of the world, the outlook, lifestyle, all well portrayed as if you are reading Roddy Doyle of Afghanistan, but then the story is very different from the everyday lives of people.
You witness public justice and tribal hangings, catch a glimpse of the world’s most wanted man, and the last quarter of the book is a roller coaster ride where Stan Kelly (Skelly) and Najeeb face a series of dangers threatening their life and liberty. The ending took me by surprise, but may not impress every one.
On the other hand, the story drags in parts, and meanders for a bit. The first part of the book seems to suggest that the story is essentially insignificant, but if you sit through it, the story does take off.
The story has some weaknesses as a pure thriller, but the local flavour is well done, as are the twists related to Aziz, Najeeb’s uncle, the reception Najeeb gets from his dad, the part played by American friends of Skelly, and the betrayal of Rashid. Add all this together, and this book deserves a 6/10
— Krishna