The Blind Man's Garden  (English, Hardcover, Aslam Nadeem)

In the aftermath of 9/11, two brothers enter Afghanistan to join the voices of humanity which seek to help the injured in the US's military reply to the attack. The Blind Man's Garden is a contemporary romance that examines the themes of despair, violence and war.

Summary of the Book

Shaken by the convulsive attack on the World Trade Center, American forces entered Afghanistan to wage a war against the Taliban and to find Osama Bin Laden. In the wake of the military coup, many men and women across the world journeyed to join hands in saving the injured civilians on both sides. Jeo and Mikal journey to Afghanistan to help the wounded. Jeo lies to his wife and family saying that he has accepted a short job at a hospital at Peshawar. The foster brothers seek to aid the voices of humanity in the war and allay the suffering of innocents. However, deeply seeded hatred from an enemy at Pakistan sees them sold into the hands of a cruel warlord, and later into the hands of the Taliban itself. Back in Pakistan, Jeo's wife is fraught with her own secret. She was madly in love with Mikal and only his failure to run away with her before the wedding made her marry Jeo instead. The story shifts between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Jeo's father Rohan owns a school around which an amazing garden has taken seed. Rohan's failing vision and the garden become metaphors for the situation in his household as Aslam unravels the story in his innate way of storytelling, blending beauty with the spectacular.

About Nadeem Aslam

Nadeem Aslam is a British Pakistani novelist. His work has won him much acclaim and his books are best-selling titles. His other books are: Season of the Rainbirds, Maps for Lost Lovers and The Wasted Vigil. He has also penned a short story entitled Leila in the Wilderness which was published in Granta 112 in 2010.

He has won several prizes, including the Author's Club First Novel Award, the Betty Trask Award, The Encore Award and The Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize.

The current title was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.