Blind Man's Garden

'Love is not consolation, it is light'From the author of Maps for Lost Lovers and The Wasted Vigil comes a 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 Pakistan to help care for wounded Afghans. Within hours of entering the wide-horizoned Afghan landscape, Mikal and Jeo are separated and, emerging from the carnage, Mikal begins his search for Jeo. But his deepest wish is to return home-to the young woman he loves and who loves him, Jeo's wife. The Blind Man's Garden maps a place both phantasmally beautiful and chilling. Taking us on a journey from Al Qaeda's 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.