Preserve Cultures

Preserve Cultures

Book Review: Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (2000)

A haunting image depicting the aftermath of war, such as a desolate landscape with ruins, or a portrait of a grieving individual.

By: Ahmad Ali Talha

Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi is one the best books on contemporary issues so you can get your expected ideas by reading this review. So let’s go;

“The law of war is the law of sacrifice; in sacrifice, there is either blood on your throat or on your hands.” 

After The Patience Stone, I read the debut novel of Atiq Rahimi, Earth and Ashes (2000), and man o man, how tragic, how so crushingly devastatingly tragic it is. Tear Toucher, Bawl Bringer, Cry Carrier, Sob Striker. Wars wear a man down. Wars make a man wear a crown. Wars bring about the destruction of the stories of mankind. Wars bring up the construction of the stories of mankind. Wars make men crawl and babies fly. 

Wars leave dimentic old men and deaf children in their wake, and this is the story of just a duo. A deaf child, going to meet his father in the mines, after everything he ever saw has turned into ashes, and with his village reduced to rubble, his world has turned mute. He clinks silent stones and shouts at silent men who keep moving their mouths like talking but never say anything. He is deaf without understanding the concept of being deaf. 

He is being accompanied by his grandfather, the old dimentic man who needs someone to talk to but has nothing to talk about. Who forgets what he just said and keeps on repeating himself. The grandfather of the child has the responsibility to tell his son that your mother, wife, brother, and village—everything you knew—has gone, blown up, vanished, along with the capability of your son to hear you talk about any of it. 

The sorrow: “Sorrow can turn to water and spill from your eyes, or it can sharpen your tongue into a sword, or it can become a time bomb that, one day, will explode and destroy you.” He does not yet know what kind of sorrow has befallen him. 

The oldest generation is dimentic, the young generation is oblivious, and distracted, and the new generation is deaf. Sometimes very subtle questions are asked in the novel, like: “If you have teeth but no bread or bread but no teeth, in other words, if only you had the right to choose: teeth or bread. Would that be free will?” 

Or quotable quotes: “Power has become their faith instead of faith being their power,” and, “Whether you should pray or not, the reality is that God is not concerned with you. If only He’d turned His attention to you for a moment, if only He would come to your side… no, God has forsaken His subjects. This is how He looks after His subjects, you yourself, in your absolute ruin, could be Lord of a thousand worlds.” 

In short, Earth and Ashes is a searing portrayal of the human cost of war, where silence speaks louder than words, and grief lingers like ashes in the air. Atiq Rahimi’s debut is a masterclass in minimalist storytelling, leaving readers haunted by its stark beauty and profound sorrow.

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