Childhood sweethearts, a woman's improbable love, tyranny of religion, feminist defiance ... In a Provençal village and in Paris of La Belle Époque.
The time is late 1800s. France has recovered from the war with Prussia, Bonapartist monarchy has ended, and tension between progressive forces and the Catholic Church is beginning to rise. The story takes place in a little village in Provence and in Paris of La Belle Époque. It is the story of André and Nicole, playmates, companions, sweethearts whose starkly different social backgrounds sweep them along paths unknown and unforeseen. It is the story of André’s mother Paulette who finds love in an unlikely quarter and becomes the target of persecution by the clergy. Like a master puppeteer, the author moves his characters through an intricate plot of improbable relationships, enduring commitment, Catholic tyranny, feminist defiance, and colossal twists of fate, to a conclusion that leaves the reader wanting more. The narrative carries a deep poignancy and leaves a bittersweet resonance in its trail; the worlds created by the author will linger with the reader long after the final page.
A Tale of Provence and Paris
Make an emotional journey through the universe of Gautam Shah's second novel
This landscape painting is one of my original works and depicts the rugged Afghan wilderness.
The book cover's inspiration, another original work of mine.
Hameeda's Tryst with Destiny
Experience an unforgettable emotional voyage with Gautam Shah’s debut novel
Set in 1980s Afghanistan, this coming of age tale tells the story of Hameeda, a sixteen-year-old Pathan girl who against all odds discovers romantic love. Despite society working against her, she manages to pursue that love, with the help of her grandfather Abdul Rahman Gafar Khan who in his youth in the 1940s Bombay had pursued his own romantic interest against similar but lesser odds. In a direct and forceful literary style, the author brings to life Hameeda's and the grandfather's everyday observations and interactions, with all the little nuances of life, and blending personal and political turmoil, takes us on a journey through a world where innocence, young love, longing, kindness, hate, violence, and evil coexist in an unsteady equilibrium that is foreboding and frightening. In an intricate embroidery of events, present and past, the book will at once fascinate and engage as the reader dives in and out of the emotions and anxieties of the granddaughter and the grandfather as they navigate their way through their small universe that is being smothered by a cruel society. It is a compelling and fastmoving narrative of will, patience, and perseverance.
A young girl learns to navigate love in her oppressive Afghan community, with the help of her beloved grandfather.
"Hameeda’s Tryst with Destiny places us in a world that we’ve read about but that few of us have experienced: 1980s Afghanistan through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl in a burka who spends most of her time behind a curtain looking out her window at the street below her house, paying very careful attention to every detail of what is almost the only world she knows. While spinning a touching love story with many twists and turns, the author simultaneously places us in the beginnings of a frightening fundamentalist wave that is about to take over; in violent encounters with Russian invaders; in cross-border migrations in and out of refugee camps. The author’s use of detail captures images that we are fully able to visualize, and the amount of research that must have been involved is truly phenomenal."
★★★★★
"Taking us somewhere we've never been"
—Sandy, Texas
