The Wasted Vigil

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Nadeem Aslam (Maps for Lost Lovers, Season of the Rainbirds) delves into the conflict-ridden reality of modern Afghanistan. From the Soviet invasion of 1979 to the U.S. war effort in the aftermath of September 11th, Afghanistan has been a battleground of opposing ideologies for decades now. The story takes place in the house of Marcus Caldwell, a British doctor who has made his home in Usha, a town near Jalalabad, since marrying an Afghan doctor. Both Qatrina, his wife, and Zameen, their daughter, have been lost to the tyranny of the Taliban, yet Marcus continues to live there like "a prophet in wreckage." Over the course of the story, several people will visit his house -- a Russian from St. Petersburg searching for her soldier brother, a young Islamic fundamentalist taking cover for a few days, a former CIA man much disillusioned with his role as a spy, and others. Aslam's writing gradually unravels the histories of the cast of characters and takes us into a civilization that, even though we learn more and more about it with every passing day, is still inscrutable to the Western eye. A pragmatist, Aslam takes no sides in the fight between Islam and the West, even as he approaches a rigid stance against terrorism. The softly gleaming beauty of his prose is immediately reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje, and the moral clarity of his concerns heralds a brave new voice in the mold of Salman Rushdie.