Divanee – South Asian news and entertainment

There is a complexity in the human thought process that few people truly understand and that even fewer succeed in putting down on paper. It takes a rare talent to capture the repetitive paranoia of a scared mind. To record the psychological leaps a mind makes, particularly in the twilight zone between dreams and lucidity, is akin to navigating a honeycomb. The repetitive, interlocking ideas jump from here to there — all connected, all leading in different directions. Few writers have the insight to understand the tangled mess of the human brain, but Atiq Rahimi is one of those few.

In “A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear,” the award-winning French-Afghan filmmaker and author plants the reader in the mind of Farhad, son of Mirdad, a young Afghan man who awakes from a sleep so deep he believes he must be dead. As he slowly regains consciousness, he gradually remembers the abuse he suffered at the hands of unruly soldiers the night before. Under the care of a beautiful stranger, Mahnaz, and won over by her innocent son, Yahya, Farhad reflects on the religious teachings of his grandfather, ignored until now. As he faces his fate — exile in Pakistan or death at the hands of the soldiers still searching for him — Farhad falls in love with Mahnaz, feeling her compassion and also the painful turns her life has taken.

It speaks to the skill of Rahimi’s storytelling (especially considering that this version is a translation) that although the story takes place over the course of only about two days, the reader comes away feeling that he or she may actually understand the confusion of living in Kabul in 1979, in the days before the Soviet invasion. Laden with political, historical, religious and cultural allusions and details, this novel is as patiently intricate as the rugs that appear throughout the story. A heart-wrenching tale of pain, love and loss, “A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear” is simply a must-read.

Interested in checking out the book? We’re giving away a copy of “A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear” — all you have to do is comment on this post and ReTweet the following from Divanee’s Twitter feed: http://bit.ly/i1EALo

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