War after war, we are becoming used with crisis and conflicts. Humans usually do have a limited attention span, but the permanent trauma we are exposed to through media and amplified online effects may limit it even more. Which is tragic when we think about the fate of the people depending at a great extent of the general sympathy in order to survive. Some conflicts may be sent into oblivion until something significant occurs, while others are moved into the forefront. A tragical game of chess having at stake destinies.
Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi is a lengthly documented complex book set in Afghanistan and US. It starts in 1978, in Kabul when the then little Sitara Zamani suceeds to escape in the middle of a coup affecting his family. Escaping to the US with the help of an American diplomat, she is building a new life and identity burrying under her Afghan past. Until one day, the man that saved her - while her family, because her father was the right hand of the progressive president Sardar Daoud, is killed - returns in her life. A successful oncologist with a completely new life story, she longs to return to Afghanistan to discover the latest pieces of the puzzles of the life she left behind.
A story about belonging and building home(s), Sparks Like Stars has an evocative tone, but equally exposes the characters to complex decisions and moral choices. But first and foremost is a book about individual destinies shaped by random political circumstances. Sitara would have had a beautiful happy life if not the dire political circumstances in the 1970s in Afghanistan. For those still wandering how comes that this country is going through such a traumatic episodes, it is a reminder that, in fact the roots are deeper in time.
I liked how the perspective changes from the little girl Sitara to the successful adult woman Sitara, with a genuine authenticity that makes the character relatable and the story itself closer to the reader´s soul. Although it is a work of historical fiction, this book helps to better understand the general context of the situation in Afghanistan, particularly regarding the women´s fate.
Nadia Hashimi is an unique sparking storyteller who refuses to abandon her complex identity in order to sound less complex, therefore relatable and acceptable for the greater public. By not giving up her story she is paving the way for more diversity and real cultural representation in the literary realm. Voices like hers do acknowledge though fiction the complexities of the Afghan file and further nurtures voices that waited for so long to finally return to the home of their minds.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
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