Review of Secrets of the Kashmir Valley

[stephanie nwafor]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Secrets of the Kashmir Valley" by Farhana Qazi.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Secrets of the Kashmir Valley is a book written by Farhana Qazi. In this book, Farhana skillfully combined political storylines, the history of this historic territory, and heartbreaking tales of human suffering to depict the people's hope despite their suffering. Her writing is an epic story of human resilience and suffering that is set in the Kashmir Valley, a location of tremendous beauty and enormous sorrow, a valley of death. Her work is a mixture of history and memoir. She tells her story in three main sections of the book: her memoir; her lengthy interactions with Kashmiri women and men; and the epilogue, in which she offers a resolution to the Kashmir conflict and concludes on an upbeat note. She also narrated the struggles faced by the people of Kashmir and the under-reported and undocumented pain and sufferings of Kashmiri women in a fascinating and intriguing way.

I love this book a lot. First of all, the writing style of the author was simple yet powerful, making the reader feel the pain and suffering of the women in the region. I like that this book gave me a good perspective on someone else’s life in a place with which I am unfamiliar. The book was packed with a lot of educational information, and I learned a lot of new things from it. I didn’t encounter any errors in this book, so I can state that this book was exceptionally well edited. She took her time, making sure there were no errors. I also like that the author's, her mother's, and grandmother's personal backgrounds were more extensively covered in this book. I was deeply moved by her years of development as she grew. Farhana is a really expressive writer, and I like her for that. I shared the Kashmiri’s pains, struggles, and suffering with them because of how expressive her writing was.

I had no issues with this book. Her style of writing, her editing, and the story she told were on point.

I rate this book five out of five stars. This is because I could not find a single fault with this book. Everything was well written, and I genuinely loved the message and how it was passed.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the untold truths of the Kashmir Valley. The book is also recommended to anyone interested in the geopolitics of South Asia, gender studies, or conflict studies.

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Secrets of the Kashmir Valley
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