An Abundance of Wild Roses
by Feryal Ali-Gauhar
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Pub Date 7 Mar 2024 | Archive Date 7 Mar 2024
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Description
Critically acclaimed author Feryal Ali-Gauhar's UK debut An Abundance of Wild Roses is a novel that combines lyrical storytelling with urgent contemporary themes of gender violence, tradition and patriarchy
In the Black Mountains of Pakistan, the discovery of an unconscious, unknown man is the first stone in an avalanche of chaos. The head of the village is beset with problems - including the injured stranger - and failing to find his way out. His daughter receives a love letter and incurs her father's wrath. A lame boy foretells disaster, but nobody is listening. Trapped in terrible danger, a wolf-dog is battling ice and death to save a soldier's life. Beaten by her addict husband for bearing him only daughters, a woman is pregnant again – but can this child save her?
In a land woven with myth, chained with tradition and afflicted by war and the march of progress, the spirits of the mountains keep a baleful eye on the struggles of the villagers who scrape a living from the bodies of their wildlife. As the elements turn on the village, can humanity find a way to co-exist with nature that doesn't destroy either of them?
Advance Praise
‘Feryal Ali-Gauhar’s writing helps us see the world as she does – clearly. To see how human beings are both awful and kind, and how often animals are far kinder than humans, and to feel the mountains and the rivers and the wind speak to you. But above all, this is a story that helps you understand the greatest mystery of all: love’
RADHIKA JHA
Praise for No Space for Further Burials:
‘In No Space for Further Burials, Feryal Ali Gauhar has crafted a novel of unrelenting truth held in transcendent prose and an exquisite grace. There is no easy redemption here, but there is light and more light’
CHRIS ABANI
‘In writing through the eyes of an American captive in Afghanistan, Feryal Ali Gauhar has fashioned a fascinating two-way mirror in which we see the author creating an Other confronting Otherness. As in Richard Powers's hostage novel Ploughing in the Dark, the mask of character reveals as much as it conceals’
STEWART O'NAN
‘An unbearably beautiful book, one you will not soon forget. . . . What Gauhar shows us is that in a war there are only those who die and those who survive, and sometimes even those lines get blurred. And that's what keeps you hungrily turning the pages’
RADHIKA JHA
Praise for The Scent of Wet Earth in August:
‘The Scent of Wet Earth in August was widely acclaimed across the globe . . . it blends Ali Gauhar’s filmmaking sensibilities . . . the relentless experience of loss, of the endangered lives of the moral “others” – the outcasts in the much loved and hated red-light district of Lahore’
Friday Times
‘Deeply perceptive and immensely readable tale of decaying poverty yet to come to terms with modernity, yet full of warmth, life and gusto . . . The rich kaleidoscope of Lahore’s life emerging from the book astonishes us . . . The book is as welcome as the scent of wet earth in August’
Deccan Chronicle
‘The treat is in the writing; it is vibrant and cinematic . . . Ali Gauhar’s reader is a step behind the character . . . meeting all its residents, feeling the lecherous gaze of its knick-knack seller . . . Fatimah and Shabbir’s secret love wraps itself like a translucent tendril around the thorny bramble of society’s repression’
Indian Express
‘Writing with a sharp and sensitive pen, Feryal Ali Gauhar captures some poignant moments of lives lived less. A celebration of the burlesque, a grim reminder of the parody that life can finally become’
Hindu
‘Presents an aspect of reality so overpowering in its merciless grimness that one can readily see how a sensitive individual might well come to believe that this, indeed, was what real life was about, and the joy and the health of the human spirit were just fleeting visitors’
Deccan Herald
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781838858162 |
| PRICE | £16.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 320 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Kelly S, Educator
The writing is gorgeous. I loved everything about this book. The storyline and plot were delicate and tender, and the author really had a way with the descriptions of nature throughout the whole book. The words and characters were beautiful. 5 stars.
Reviewer 675379
Set in the Black Mountain region in Pakistan, it is a heartbreaking book with many memorable characters: the head of the village is trying to figure out what to do with the injured man that was brought to him, while at the same time battling with his wives and a modern daughter. A soldier is trapped in an avalanche, with a faithful dog to try and save him. A woman who can only give birth to daughters is pregnant again. Torn between tradition and progress, they also have to deal with the forces of nature.
Annie L, Reviewer
What a powerful Book ! it tells of the awful life many Women & Girls still live & have in many rural parts of the world who's menfolk refuse to allow them to enter the 21st Century! They also twist the words of their religious beliefs to justify how the Women are treated & sadly because of this so many of these young girls & women commit Suicide because for them Death by any means is far less torturous than the life they may have to face , often being married as young as 15 years of age & even sometimes younger once they have had their first blood Loss they are deemed fit to marry & bare a man Sons.
There were also other stories twisted between the lines of the main story , of men who have to fight & are posted to the highest outpost of up to 21, 000 feet & of amazing search & rescue Dogs ( mainly German Shepherds) or in the case of this book a Wolf Dog called Malika who helped her caring Soldier & his companion survive a horrific Avalanche!
I think this book should be read in every English Literature Class in every High School to make our young Women & Men realise how fortunate they are ! #NetGalley, #GoodReads, #FB, #Amazon.co.uk, #Instagram,# <img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/8a5b541512e66ae64954bdaab137035a5b2a89d2" width="80" height="80" alt="200 Book Reviews" title="200 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>..
Roman C, Reviewer
Set in a small mountain village in Pakistan, this is a graceful book that opens a window into a different culture, community and way of living. The author is not pejorative and shows what can be embraced from tradition while not pulling her punches on what it also means to live under a patriarchy where violence is normalised. Surprisingly, a place for hope is carved out from this darkness.
The writing style feels a perfect match for the almost elemental, mythical feel that is conjured up. Compassionate and modeling a humanity that is not always demonstrated by the characters, this beats to a different rhythm than many Western novels.
Irene M, Reviewer
The author vividly showed me a way of life and culture that is difficult for a western reader to comprehend, transporting me to and enveloping me in the life of a village in the mountains of Pakistan.
The characters, through their actions and words, come alive as living breathing people. The head man, revered by men and feared by his two older wives, so sure of his authority but so erratic; the pregnant woman, fearful of the consequences of bearing another daughter to her idle addicted brutal husband; the man trapped by an avalanche and desperately searching for his friend, and many more.
The short italicised chapters appealed strongly to me, powerfully describing the damage we do to our planet by destroying nature and the despair we inflict on other creatures by killing them and eating their flesh. Here the messages so often expressed of concern for the earth and compassion for animals are powerfully imparted in a novel way.
Sarah H, Educator
A really compelling read, set in the Black Mountains of Pakistan which explores many characters and their stories. Primarily, it focuses on the struggles and challenges of the women living there. In their culture, they face oppression and violence. We also get to see the consequences and the impact war has had on their lives.
A truly unique read.
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