Starting all over again is tough. I feel it, as I grapple with what was once supposed to feel natural. Writing these blurbs on a regular basis or using my hands without worrying about their natural alignment. All of it feels out of place yet reminiscent. Perhaps, it is fitting that I read something that revolves around this feeling.
In the Orchard, the Swallows, by Peter Hobbs, revolves around a yearning for an old love. The unnamed narrator, freshly released from jail, returns to familiar confines only to find out that the family orchard, once cherished, is no longer the subject of anyone’s attention. His crime? Falling in love with Saba, a powerful man’s daughter who seems a little too perfect, and a subsequent feud with her family, resulting in his imprisonment. The narrator is nursed back to health by a kind father-daughter duo, Abbas and Alifa. A part of the recovery involves the duo teaching the narrator to read and write again, allowing him to draft the narrative we’re reading. He flits between the past and present, remembering his past – memories of his time in the orchard, cherishing the ripe pomegranates or those brief moments that Saba and he managed to get for themselves. A good chunk of the novel is about the narrator’s time in prison and the hardships he had to deal with. The titular swallows, observed in the prison courtyard, act as a symbol of hope. A hope to go back to a moment in time where all was right.
The read: Hobbs writes the entire story in a poetic fashion, fuelled by the smells, sounds, and sights of the heartland (the story is based in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan). He writes about the narrator’s grief and happiness with aplomb, each of those tracks beautifully intertwining with each other. Not a sentence feels out of place and the writing can truly be described as elegant. This is a story about ordinary lives being wrecked by seemingly extraordinary circumstances and any attempt to recoup what was once theirs. A short read and heartfelt at that. Pomegranates are a must as you turn those pages.
Trivia: The book talks about the origins of the word paradise, denominated by a single noun denoting “a walled-in compound or garden”, from “pairi” (“around”) and “daeza” or “diz” (“wall”, “brick”, or “shape”). These connotations lend to paradise being described as an enclosed garden of delights as well as the designation of Persian gardens, which are a type of paradise garden.
(References: 1 and 2)
Documentation:
Book: In the Orchard, the Swallows
Author: Peter Hobbs
Year of Release: 2012
Publisher: Anansi Press