The Last Kestrel
by Jill McGivering
THE blurb says those who loved The Kite Runner will love this one as well, which is a glib, vaguely crooked way of trying to sell a book that seldom rises above the mediocre. Even if you haven’t read the introduction, it is easy to guess that Jill McGivering, the author, has been a journalist, a war correspondent and seems to know Afghanistan.
But then, a lot of us seem to “know” Afghanistan even without having been there, so that this one begins to look like a collection of borrowed clichés.
Set in the dangerous Helman province of Afghanistan, The Last Kestrel tells the story of Ellen Thomas who returns to the place on assignment, filled with guilt over the death of her interpreter Jalil, a young man abducted and shot in what seems to be a Taliban killing.
Of course, that’s not what it is and Ellen embarks upon a journey of discovery that she can, paradoxically, never reveal, even as a journalist.
It is a well-written book, with some evocative passages, but the style seems so over-written at times as to be annoying, the constant attention to every little detail almost befuddling.
McGivering is not just content with describing heat and dust and the sand that one constantly lives with, she must dwell almost lovingly on the dirt in fingernails on hands shoveling food into mouths, the roughness, the abrasiveness and the sheer joylessness that seems to be life in the Afghanistan she knows.
There are descriptions of bombings, of blood and fear and mined fields and the sharp crack of enemy fire, the enemy being her own countrymen. There is certainly not a word about blue skies or a kite. Or a kite runner, for that matter.
We understand that she referred to the bird in an interview, saying, “I’ve seen kestrels riding the air currents in Afghanistan as they hunt – and, in the novel, Ellen does too. I think of them as symbolic of the country’s recent history.”
Jill McGivering is a senior BBC broadcaster, specialising in Asia. This is her first novel and draws on her reporting trips to Afghanistan and two embeds with British military units in Helmand Province.
The Last Kestrel
by Jill McGivering
HarperCollins
Price Rs.299