‘Tales from Qabristan’: A novel about a young man’s childhood memories is as vivid as a photograph

“Wise are those who listen to the tales from Qabristan
for only then can you
Admire the flowers bloomed in the garden of the grave.”

If I were to describe Sabin Iqbal’s Tales From Qabristan, in one sentence, I would say that it is like flipping through the pages of an album of vivid photographs taken through the protagonist Farook’s lens that capture his world as it is. However, since a single line wouldn’t do the book justice, I’ll talk about it with all its quirks and wonders to convince you to read it.

The Kayaloram House

The novel is a wonderfully done portrait of the inhabitants of the Kayaloram House through Farook’s reflections on his life following his father’s death. He seems to be scrambling to keep alive the tales that his grandmother and mother have told him and through them, the memories of those who have become tombstones in the graveyard. These stories translate bigger theoretical discussions of grief, feminism, caste, religion, and capitalism that are forgetful of very many people of the country, into the slow-moving, everyday lives of all those that occupied a space – no matter how small – in Farook’s life. The Middle-Eastern Oil Boom, the massive immigration that it set off, the families it...

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