Blind Man’s Garden (PAPERBACK)

‘Love is not consolation, it is light’   From the author of Maps for Lost Lovers and The Wasted Vigil comes a searing, exquisitely written novel, set in the months after 9/11 when Western armies invaded Afghanistan—a story of love, hope and grief, of uncorrupted faith and of what it means to be alive.   Jeo and his foster-brother Mikal leave their home in a small Pakistani city, not to fight with the Taliban but to help care for wounded civilians. But within hours of entering the wide-horizoned Afghan landscape, it becomes apparent that good intentions can’t keep them out of harm’s way. The Blind Man’s Garden maps a place both phantasmally beautiful and chilling. Taking us on a journey from Al Qaeda hideouts in Waziristan and American-built military prisons to a family left behind—Mikal’s and Jeo’s blind, regretful father, Jeo’s resolute wife and her superstitious mother—it unflinchingly examines war and brotherhood, devastation, separation and remorse, while celebrating the redemptive power of nature, art and literature.   About The Author: Nadeem Aslam is the author of three previous novels, Season of the Rainbirds (1993), Maps for Lost Lovers (2004)—longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the IMPAC Prize, and awarded the Kiriyama Prize and the Encore Award—and, most recently, The Wasted Vigil (2008), described by A.S. Byatt as ‘unforgettable . . . tragic and beautifully written’. Born in Pakistan, he now lives in England. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.