LOVE IN THE TIME OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS, REVIEW OF ‘THE KAAFIR’S LOVE’ WRITTEN BY ABHISAR SHARMA

Book Title: The Kaafir’s Love

Author: Abhisar Sharma

Total Number of Pages: 257

Publisher: Rupa Publications

Publication Date: 20 June 2018

Language: English

Genre: Fiction/ Romance

Link To Book (Amazon): https://amzn.to/2LdcHIn

REVIEWED BY SOHINEE DEY

Romance genre by far has to be the most popular genre within readers and also amongst writers. Due to its popularity, books of this genre often times tend to be clichéd as thinking of new plot and executing it in a non-rehearsed manner is very difficult. But there are many books out there which are breaking the stereotypical outlook of ‘easy to write in’ on this genre.

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Read My Previous Review of ‘Unfettered Wings’ by Sana Munir

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🌠QOTD: Do You Like Reading Romance Stories? What Kind of Romance Books Do You Prefer To Read? 😄🌠 . I do like to read Romance books. But the usual girl-meets-boy-and-they-live-happily-ever-after- kind. I mostly go for the darker ones because I have devilish thoughts 😈😂. But yes, the book has to have a good plotline and it shouldn't be only about romancing the hero/heroine. . 'Kaffir's Love' is about Sameer and Inara. The book tries to show that love can happen between any two people and religious or different cultural backgrounds are not the determining factors of who you can be in love with. The book is set in Old Delhi and deals with forbidden love, intolerance and other social stigmas. I haven't finished reading the book yet but so far it's good. I'll be posting the review on my blog very soon 💜. Thanks to @rupa_publications for sending me a copy of the book 💕 . . . . . #bookstagramindia #bookstagrammers #bookstagrammersunite #unitedbookstagram #kolkatabookstagrammers #igreaders #booksofinstagram #bookbloggers #goodreads #bookhoarder #bookpic #culturetripbooks #booknerdigans #indianbloggers #bookstagramindiafeature #bookporn #booknerd #bookstagrammer #bookoholic #bookgeek #booklove #vscobooks #kolkatadiaries #kolkata #delhi #bookphotography #indianfiction

A post shared by Sohinee (she/her)| Bookstagram (@bookarlo) on Jul 11, 2018 at 7:43am PDT

Inter-caste marriages have started to become the center of attention in many romance novels and while it used to be a taboo years ago, readers have been welcoming of such relationships in books from the past couple of years.

Next up, there’s romance novels that feature interfaith relationships and they have also started garnering attention from readers. Abhisar Sharma weaves such an inter-religious love story between a Hindu boy, Sameer and a Muslim girl, Inara in his new romance fiction, ‘The Kaafir’s Love’.

A starry eyed boy and the daughter of a powerful and authoritative man who was known to get down and dirty. It was known that their romance would have to encounter several hindrances due to their different religious background. But did it stop them? No.

Set in Old Delhi, the appearance of the historic mosque, Jama Masjid can be seen often times in the narrative. In fact, the story is somewhat in correlation with the Jama Masjid. Sameer and Nasir are seen sharing a bond of friendship in a neighbourhood of Chandni Chowk where he is deemed to be a minority in the dominated Muslim community.

When age old rivalry breaks in, Sameer finds himself caught up in this feud and also discovers many underlying secrets. ‘The Kaafir’s Love’ takes us through a macabre of killings, hideous crimes and political parties waiting to be benefitted from the dispute. Etched with palpable tension, it is to see if Sameer and Inara can make it through all these obstructions without giving up.

The plotline even though not an original, the writing style of Sharma sure does have the ability to arrest the readers. He has narrated the story with such mastery that will keep the readers engaged into the story. He has a good command over language and have used simple words to structure the sentences but nowhere did it feel that he had ineptly handled the narration.

The book is plot driven and amidst the caricatured plotline, I felt that the characters were lost to the spriteful storyline and evocative narration. Characters are important in a story and when readers don’t get to witness their development, it does disappoint them, even if a little bit. There were times when I felt that some paragraphs could have been cut down a bit to keep them from being tedious. There’s another element  which I felt could have  been worked on. It’s the dialogue delivery. The dialogues at times felt flat and toneless.

Even though there were parts which could have been better, the writing style and the narration made up for the missing elements.

‘The Kaafir’s Love’ gives us a close-up of what religious tension looks like and also how it is used as a means for political advantages. Not to forget there’s two people from different religious backgrounds who fall for each other.

FINAL THOUGHTS

‘The Kaafir’s Love’ would make it big if casted on the big screen, given our Indian audience who likes love stories to be thrilling.

Recommended to readers who are suckers for romance novels with offbeat plotlines.

POESY IN CHRYSALIS RATING: ⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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