An Abundance of Wild Roses is the latest fictional work by Ms Faryal Ali Gauhar, an accomplished writer who already has important works of fiction to her credit, such as The Scent of Wet Earth in August and No Space for Further Burials. Her latest novel, An Abundance of Wild Roses, is a gripping tale of courage, grit, and the self-immolating spirit of human beings and the spirits called “Peritings”, and the interactive relationship between the two.
Set against the mountainous region of the Northern Areas, probably Chilas and Kohistan, the novel captures the essence of nature’s beauty and the human quest to survive hardships and live in harmony with it.
The novel bears thematic resemblance to another book, The Bride, written by the distinguished Pakistani writer Bapsi Sidhwa, which chronicled the travails of a young woman and her doomed quest for love and agency over her fate.
The imagery of the prose and the depth of emotions in An Abundance of Wild Roses recall Bapsi Sidhwa’s depiction of the jagged serenity of the towering mountains of Kohistan and the deafening roar of the Indus, where the body of a murdered woman was found, one who had defied tradition and patriarchy to love and marry the man she loved.
The 311-page book is not a page-turner in the mould of a racy thriller. Still, it does compel the reader to stay with the narrative long enough to savour the prose with closed eyes and then move forward, feeling the sounds, smells, and cadences of raw nature laid bare in sharp relief by a sensitive wordsmith.
The narrative casts a spell over the reader, leaving a lingering aftertaste of the resilience of the human spirit
The book is a cross between The Bride and One Hundred Years of Solitude, being a lucid, distanced, and poignant narrative containing vignettes of Tolstoy’s celebration of bucolic revelry and rustic simplicity. The yearning to live in harmony with nature and the defiance of suffocating patriarchal norms are two predominant themes that recur throughout the book.
The melding of multiple stories into one central thread, and the helplessness of each protagonist in the face of the cruel predeterminism of fate, brings to mind the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the striking similarity between the fictional village of “Sau Dukhdas” in An Abundance of Wild Roses and “Macondo” in One Hundred Years of Solitude. The main theme of the novel appears to be the idea that harmony and retribution are bound together as conjoined twins by nature.
The dominant message of the novel is that those who disturb harmony invite retribution from the spirits or nature, referred to by the onomatopoeic name “Periting” in the book. To illustrate this theme, the writer foregrounds each of the twenty-five chapters with Cassandra-like predictions by the spirits. The spiritual and temporal worlds, therefore, exist cheek by jowl in the narrative, with the spirits articulating nature’s will, while “Sau Dukhdas” and “Chartoi” symbolise the temporal world.
The novel’s rich imagery, depicting the beauty of human nature and the depth of human emotions, is simply captivating. The narrative casts a spell over the reader, leaving a lingering aftertaste of the resilience of the human spirit. The despotism of patriarchy and the emerging challenge to patriarchal norms are very ably highlighted by the author.
The novel is as much a paean to the glory of unsullied nature as it is a tribute to the indestructibility of the human spirit. The multiple characters in the book such as Moosa, an exemplar of outmoded tribal traditions; the English Madam, symbolising modernity; Lasnik, depicting occult passions; Sabiha, embodying defiance; and men like Hasan, Noor, and Nasser, who represent a blend of compassion and fatalism bring to life the core themes of love, sacrifice, oppression, and harmony through their actions. Spirits such as “Tish Hagur” depict the enduring character of harmony, balance, and compassion as the warp and woof of a life-giving nature.
The novel’s breathtaking visual imagery, nature’s scents, and raw appeal to human emotions such as love, hatred, fear, and hope are beautifully woven into a coherent narrative reminiscent of Tolstoy’s moral determinism, García’s magical realism, and Bapsi Sidhwa’s advocacy for female agency. It kindles hope for the triumph of the human spirit over man-made disharmony and teaches the value of sacrifice, compassion, respect for nature, and defiance of bondage imposed in the name of tradition and patriarchal honour.