I remember watching the liberation of
Kuwait during the first Gulf War on television when I was finishing
university. I was mesmerised by the
footage of Christine Amanpour as she reported front the ever-changing frontline
of the battlefields of Bosnia. I have
recently been shocked by the courage of the reporters from the uprisings across
the Middle East over the last year. I
have seen footage of the reporters embedded with troops in the Vietnam
conflict. Reporters give us what we hope are the
facts as the destruction of bombs and bullets unfolds before our eyes.
The notion of reporters embedded with
troops isn’t a new idea. Newspapers have
sent reporters to cover wars since the time of the Crimea. But what the reporters sent back wasn’t
always aligned with the reality of the devastation. They went where the military wanted them to
go and they reported the message that the government wanted them to
report. Often the copy written
represented very little of the actual blood and guts that is real armed
conflict. Civilian casualties were all
too often erased from the words.
All too often, we take these reports for
granted. This book makes you live the war.
Jill McGivering, a respected, veteran BBC
correspondent has covered more than her fair share of wars. She is the currently the Asian correspondent
and spend most of her time in dangerous places which aren’t really topping the
top 10 places to go on holiday. That’s
because these aren’t the types of places you go for a nice, relaxing, hang out
by the pool kind of holiday.
No, there is no hanging about when life is
a fragile set of circumstances. McGivering
has taken these experiences, but more importantly, the people she has met, and
written her first novel, The Last Kestrel.
Published in 2010, this book has only just made it to the top of my To
Read pile. I wish I had read it sooner.
The Last Kestrel tells the story of a
journalist, Ellen Thomas, trying to unravel the puzzling events of her translator’s
death, whilst assuring her publisher in the UK that a story will soon be
submitted. Ellen isn’t entirely certain
what the actual story is. Readers are
invited to bear tragic witness to the story of Hasina, a native peasant woman, trying
to save the life of her only son, who may or may not be responsible for a
suicide bombing and the brutal realities of the unpleasant choices faced by the
military caught up in the nightmare of today’s Afghanistan.
Undoubtedly, McGivering’s journalistic
experiences have coloured the people and events and the book sometimes read
like a newspaper report: very factual,
very straightforward, sometimes harsh, a little bit simple. But then a surprisingly intimate and
compassionate insight into the pain of Hasina, the mother of a martyr, will
suddenly break your heart and remind you that you are a mother and everyone was
once a foolish, impressionable teenager with ideals and convictions of right
and wrong.
McGivering is also an obvious expert on the
subject matter. I was mesmerised by her
descriptions of the social rituals and customs of eating food and being offered
drinks in a home of a “local” Afghan.
This is a gritty book; it is not easy to
read but it is not easy to put down either.
I suspect readers who loved The Kite Runner will love this.
McGivering has written a second novel, this
one set in Pakistan. The journalist,
Ellen Thomas is featured again so I am betting a series is in the making. I am happy to read them all if they are as
good as The Last Kestrel.
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