Jazeera|Yash Pawaskar | Book Review

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Reading Indian historical fiction is always surprising. These

books don’t ever fail to show us our potential. They give us just

a tiny glimpse of what we were and it’s enough to overwhelm

us with a sense of pride. Jazeera: Legend of the Fort Island by

Yash Pawaskar is a book that has joined the list of all such

inspiring historical fictions.

Set in 14th century CE Bharatvarsh, this book is the story of a

fort island called Jazeera in the Arabian Sea. The book is divided

into three parts. Ruled by the cruel and apathetic king Zorawar,

referred to as Sultan, ominous things begin to happen in Jazeera.

In the first part of the book, we see children between the age

five and twelve beings ‘taken’ by Shadows. Going parallel to this,

we come upon a group lead by a woman called Kashvi living on

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the western coast of the Indian subcontinent, which were the

inhabitants of the island but left when Zorawar came in power.

There are many other parallel stories going around this with

lots of characters.

It’s not possible to tell more about the story without giving

some spoilers as the book is so suspenseful, so many of the

things make sense much later in the book. So skipping the story

part, let’s talk about the essence and writing style.

As said earlier, the book has done a great job depicting the

strength in our people and filling us with pride. Unlike other

historical fictions, which usually depict a rivalry between two

kings, this book shows the victory of tribals over the foreign

invader. It captures their emotions to get back what was theirs,

their love for nature and awing descriptions about the

techniques and the knowledge they had. The thing that I liked

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the most was the importance of female characters in the book.

The author has made a brilliant point about how the Adivasis

were not just illiterate as most of us think, but they had values

and knowledge that most of us have forgotten.

The book is very gripping and you just want to know what’s

gonna happen ahead.

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Suditi Gupta.