[Book Review] The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari

While some people like fantasy and others enjoy romance, I have always enjoyed sinking  my teeth into a good old saga set in a war-torn land (the pickings in this genre are, predictably, slim). So it is no surprise that The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari is my reading material of choice this winter!

Rukhsana – the protagonist of this book – is one of the few female journalists left in an oppressive, Taliban-occupied Kabul. She lives day-to-day, unsure of her career’s fate, and her ability to survive. Her fears are not unfounded – she is soon summoned by the notorious Zorak Wahidi to the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (This institution really exists, I am not making it up). Certain that her time is up, Rukhsana is shocked when Wahidi offers her an escape proposition instead of the death sentence she was intensely dreading.

Wahidi informs Rukhsana that the victorious team of a cricket tournament (of which Rukhsana is the organizer) will be sent to Pakistan for an international level match. Rukhsana’s only means of leaving Afghanistan lies in that cricket team. But Wahidi – the enabler of her covert plan –soon poses a thorn in it. He wants to do more that just help Rukhsana – he wishes to marry her. Will Rukhsana succeed in finding a safe haven in Pakistan? Will she transform from path-breaking female journalist to Wahidi’s submissive wife? And what about her first love, the handsome Indian man she fell for in Delhi? Rukhsana’s adventure-filled, love-torn life may be hard to empathize with, but Murari tells her story in such a relatable way that you feel like you are having a conversation with one of your best friends.

And by the end of the book, Rukhsana does become your best friend. The great thing about The Taliban Cricket Club is that you don’t have to be obsessed with The Kite Runner-esque, Taliban-centric stories (like I admittedly am!) to enjoy it. After all, at its heart, it is simply the tale of a young girl who is desperately trying to escape her own personal hell when all the odds are stacked against her.