This was an interesting way to tell a story that is rapidly fading from living memory. India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and immediately split into 2 countries, India and Pakistan, which was mostly muslim. Suddenly a lot of people found themselves on the wrong side and subject to horrific violence by their neighbours. Its an act that has echoes today in the continued uneasy relaitonship between the two countries.
This tells that story by speaking to 21 people who were there and uses an item that they had or carried during their moveemtn across the border at the time. By nature of being a refugee, most of the objects are either practical or are small and valuable. They were things that could be carried easily. The stories these people tell of the things they witnessed are horrible and you do wonder how they managed to sleep that night, ag=fter stirring these long burried memories up again. It does not make for comfortable reading, but that does not mean it should not be read.
The stories could become repetitive, and so having 21 makes for a reasonable quantity, each one is suffiently different in their memories of the time before and after to avoid this becomming the same story told over and over.
It's an important event that needs to be captured now, in order that the generaitons that come after understand the pain and suffering that attended the birst of two nations and why that still matters.
I won this book as part of a prize of all the books shortlisted for the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding in 2019. If they are as good as this, I'm in for a treat as I read the other 5. ( )