Dan Brown is back

I was window shopping in the West Field shopping mall (Sydney, Australia) today morning and this poster caught my attention. Not only me but many other passers by. Got to see what new records his new novel is going to create....Eagerly awaiting September 15. 

Book Review: Thousand Splendid Suns

Sometimes I could not bear the pain of reading through the plot unfolding and thrown the book away. I grab the book after sometime in the hope that the lives of the characters would turn the positive way. And all the time I was relieved what was depicted in the novel is fiction. Had it been real, it would not have been bearable for sure. However at the end of the book, the author in his note informs us about the hardships faced by women in the Taliban Afghanistan. I wept thinking about the fate of them. I could no longer stand the pain of not knowing if the lives of the characters had a happy ending. Half through the book, I turned over to the last chapter, read the happier but devastating end and started on the rest of the book.

A must read for its dizzying power of making our hearts cry “Thousand Splendid Suns” is a novel by Khalid Hosseni who’s earlier novel “The Kite Runner” is also received with lot of acclaim around the world. It is the story of two women Mariam and Laila who share a relationship of a mother and a daughter beyond the actual one they are forced into. It is the story of the contrasting country of Afghanistan before and after the Taliban invasion. It is the story of the sacrifices made by women. It is about the love that never fades away. It is about people acting in extra ordinary ways to overcome obstacles with startling heroism. It is about how International politics devastated a beautiful country.

The acknowledgements section of the novel has info that the title of the novel comes from the English translation of a poem composed seventeenth century Persian poet “Saeb-e-Tabrizi”. It describes Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan that

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”.

After all the years of invasion Kabul is no longer what it is described. Laila living away in Pakistan remembers this poem recited to her by her father and when the US forces reclaim Afghanistan and went about setting peace, she vows to go back to the city where she actually belongs and live the life of the dreams of her father and mother. She reveals to Tariq (her husband) about her wish of going back to Afghanistan, he responds back, “I would even go to the end of the world for you”.

This is what the characters in the novel and the readers yearn for, comforting and selfless love.

Do not miss it, if you haven’t read it already.

Book Review: Three mistakes of my life

Finally, I was able to grab my hands on Chetan Bhagat’s third novel “Three mistakes of my life”. My friend coming from India brought this book as a compensation for not bringing a technology book that I required. I completed reading the novel at one go. I love Chetan for his comedy timing and the way he sketches the character of the female lead. If it is Neha Cherian in “Five Point Someone” and her love story with Hari that makes you read the novel again and again, here it is Vidya who struggles hard to run away from the conservative Ahmedabad. His comedy timing is also in tact. Though the novel starts modestly describing the lives of three friends through one of them, it gathers momentum, Chetan gains his comedy timing and he turns wild playing with them both only when the Character of Vidya enters bringing liveliness to the entire novel. He describes Ahmedabad (his love for the city can be seen through this) like Dan Brown describes Paris in Da Vinci Code.

There are three friends Ish, Omi and the protagonist. Ish is a cricket maniac and a district level player. Omi is the son of a priest. The protagonist (I don’t think the author described his name any where) lives with his mother. His father leaves his family. The three of them opens a cricket shop in the temple premises. Vidya is the sister of Ish preparing for medical exams in her pursuit of going to Mumbai to enjoy her freedom. Religion, cricket, love and friendship mix up and make the protagonist commit three mistakes that changes the lives of three friends forever. What are the three mistakes and what are the consequences? You got to read and find out in this thoroughly enjoyable novel.

I have a doubt Chetan Bhagat dreams that his novel be made into a movie. How else can you describe his novels having an interval bang, an edge-of-the-seat climax, romantic scenes sprinkled all over? May be, growing up on Bollywood made him think in that way. He uses his marketing skills at pricing the book at a modest rate of 95/- rupees. A must read for all, just for the fun of it.