The Blind Man's Garden by Nadeem Aslam

  Pakistan, Afghanistan, in the months following 9/11: there is no simple path to follow; no simple choice is possible.  The effects of Al Qaeda and American retaliation and war reach deeply into a family, which is battered and torn by the actions of others that they cannot control.

  I had this book for a long time, reading sometimes only a paragraph at a sitting, because I was frightened to glimpse around the corner at what was ahead.   I was afraid!  I didn’t want people to whom I’d formed attachments to be hurt or die!  I could not imagine how impossible and painful situations could be resolved!

 Young men join a cause that betrays them; a struggling woman seeks a decent life for her daughter; people are torn between human decency and loyalty to conflicting religious dictates; an imperfect man is blinded by a jewel as he tries to keep his family intact; a couple hide their forbidden love. 
  

    Many tragedies told amongst passages of beautiful prose.  The garden that gives the book its title is also the books fragrant central setting, a constant backdrop into which the mad happenings of the surroundings sometimes intrude.

  I had no idea how they would manage, but they did.

 “ And the stars,” he says, “the twinkling of them.  I will remember them by holding the palm of my hand in the rain.”

Title: The Blind Man's Garden

Author: Nadeem Aslam

Published: 2013, Faber & Faber

ISBN: 9780571287918