The Half Mother

Shahnaz Bashir

Hachette India,

192 pages, Rs. 295

It is the 1990s, and Kashmir’s war has begun to claim its first victims. Among them are Haleema’s father, Ghulam Rasool Joo, and her teenage son, Imran, who is picked up by the authorities and becomes one of Kashmir’s missing people. Bashir’s debut novel tells the story of Haleema—a mother and a daughter yesterday, a “half mother” and an orphan today.