“Snakes in the Meadows” by Ayaz Kohli

It is 1987 in the hilly village of Pathri Aali, Jammu, and Kashmir, two young lovers, Aslam and Ashwar dream of marriage and good things in life. But things never work out the way you think. Amidst unrest in the valley, Aslam leaves the village and Ashwar is bound to marry another man.
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How their lives take different turns and how the people of Pathri Aali are in a constant state of misery, both by the Army and the mujahideen, “Snakes in the meadows is a saga of the onset of militancy and the resilience of pir panjal.
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The author has penned each word beautifully describing the allure of Jammu and Kashmir and the way story proceeds, the atrocities that the villagers are subjected to and how each characters life advances, makes the book unputdownable.
The various subplots and shift in narratives do make the plot a bit confusing and I felt some of the subplots could be avoided for the sake of making the narrative more cohesive.
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All in all, a riveting and engaging read, filled with a lot of emotions and heart-rending stories of the perseverance of the people of Pir Panjal.
Rating :⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: fiction, indian-literature