Daughters of Char Chinar-Almas Hussain

Book: Daughters of Char Chinar
Author: Almas Hussain
Publisher: Pirates Publishing

Daughters of Char Chinar is the story set in the fictional place of Char Chinar, a place where being beautiful is a curse your young women. Born in this land are the twins Nafisa and Meher, the daughters of the fourth wife of Kazi Shah. Far from the place where they were born, the girls are brought up by their mother’s relatives after they are abandoned by Kazi at birth. In their maternal home, the girls develop a world of their own, educating themselves and even finding their love. Everything is going fine until the day Kazi kills a man and returns to reclaim his daughters to be presented to the Jirga council as atonement for his sins. The leader of this group of man decides to claim her, and Nafisa is scared beyond her wits. This is a bitter-sweet tale of the Daughters of Char Chinar based on the primitive justice systems that prevail in some parts of South Asia, where rape is a punishment, not a crime.

The story is told in a very interesting and free-flowing manner, such that the reader is completely a part of the tale as it unfolds. The descriptions of people, places and things is quite vivid, and  a wonderful picture is painted while reading. There are happy as well as painful moments and each of them give the reader a high that comes from the very idea of storytelling. Almas has taken up a very sensitive issue and woven  a tale around it that is not just about the primitive justice system, but also women empowerment and the way they are treated in the society. All things said, the part of the book after the Jirga court incident in the later half seemed to drag the story too much and it becomes uninteresting as the tempo and the feeling drops. Apart from that, the climax was quite interesting.

The characters have been vividly crafted and they are quite unique in the manner in their story is told. Most of the primary characters are misfits in their own rights in Char Chinar and each one of them rises above what the society thinks of them to be a part of the change. This was something I really liked as Almas has given each character a distinct voice and gives them a chance to actually change the way things work in that place. For me, the most interesting character was that of Nanna and the courage she displayed from the very beginning.

A special mention to the cover of the book that will make you pick up the book the moment one glances over it!

The book scores a 3.70/5 for me.

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