Home & the sense of home offers the most beautiful of hopes for us to live life, as it presents itself to us every single day, in the hues of sunrise, clinging to us as the day passes by in its own rhythm & even as the gleaming moon holds the emptiness of the dark, boundless sky. Those unfiltered colors of sunrise, wandering shades of sunset, the subtle light of moon, all feel like a calling to home. Like the sound of rain while you’re reading, a cup of tea as your companion, infuses in you a familiar warmth of a home. Like your favorite book, one lovely home to look forward to over & over again.
Each word written for home, to express it, is home itself. But what if each part, each page of home is miles apart, with pain, devastation & blood writing the poetry of homelessness. What if the colors of sunrise & sunset are no longer visible to you & the moon no longer lingers in the sky to brighten up your sense of home, to sing you a lullaby as you sleep peacefully? What if the most beautiful of hopes, your most favorite book, the poetry you hold dear is lost forever even before you try to hold it, way before you capture its essence within you? What if you find your bookshelves empty, devoid of all the books, you carefully arranged all your life? What if all the words, thoughts, and ideas you wrote lie in the debris that used to be your home?

Well, even after reading the history of wars in history classes, remembering the dates, trembling at the mere imagination of landscapes lined with corpses and misery, while power and rivalry aimed their swords at anything and everything that came in their way, I rarely gave these questions a deep thought. That was until I came across books that are born and immersed in the ache of lost homes, shredded families, and broken individuality–– all ruthlessly torn apart with a cruel knife that is war.

Home is all the poetries of the heart, for it’s found in places the body can’t even think of. And war robs these poetries of a place of belonging. Reading about war and its brutal power to devastate not only makes you love a little more, feel grateful for everything you have and hug your loved ones tighter; it is in fact your little contribution to the stories that have been lived by millions out there and an empathetic understanding towards their human experience, which are otherwise left out in history textbooks and cultural memory.
The oldest war I’ve read about is The Revolutionary War (1775-1783). And, so I agree with Margaret Atwood saying, “War is what happens when language fails”. However, I’d like to emphasize that “Literature is what happens when war fails.” Millions of wars, be it The Revolutionary War, War Of 1812, Mexican-American War, World War & so on, each ended yet literature thrived. As most of the wars make their way into literature, each story becomes a symbol of lasting impact indicating that literature did save lives, filling them with the scent of hope & meaning, even in those testing times. This has been my motivation to read as much about the lives lived in wars. For, literature about war is saying, “I survived to write.” And, the stories of survival of others is a hope in itself to forge ahead. As Tim O’Brien said, “But this is true: stories can save us.”

Literature As War Classics–– Literature stands the test of times.
Under Fire : The Story Of A Squad (French – Le Feu : journal d’une escouade ), written by French novelist (& soldier) Henri Barbusse, published back in 1916, is considered to be the first impactful novel reflecting war (World War 1).
In Indian literature, various responses to war have been recorded as early as 1915. “Usne Kaha Tha”, a short story by the writer & scholar, Chandradhar Sharma Gulheri, is mostly considered to be the first fictional reaction to the Great War. Another noteworthy novel written between World War I & II is Across The Black Waters By Mulk Raj Anand. It’s interesting to note that Mulk Raj Anand has written the book from the perspective of a sepoy of Indian Army fighting for Britian, while going beyond the usual war narratives, to write his own version of kindness that never dies, even in the middle of a war. Even as the British were ruling India, the literature remained a witness to stories brewing on both sides. “White Mughals” by William Dalyrymple, a story of the British Resident & his love for a Muslim girl, Khair Un Nissa, reflects the humane aspects of war, where love find its way in the hearts of people despite major differences. And, millions of examples treasured in history over a long, long period of time reflect that “literature thrives on history, literature sustains, and so does the sense of home in people & places in it.”

Book Recommendations:
Tucked in your bed safely, admiring the moon, with an unread pile of books peeping at you from time to time, while a peaceful sleep bringing you a much needed respite, here’s a list of 5 books to add to your TBR pile to strengthen your sense & love of home :

1) Mornings In Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙣 90’𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙋𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚 & 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚. This is the story of Abulheja family, a Palestinian family of Yehya & Basima, sons Hasan and Darweesh of Yousef and Ismael, and mainly of Amal. ‘Amal’ means hope and as she shifts away from home & finds her way back to it, hers is the journey made for hope as we all tightly cling to. Not only is the emotion of home lost to the brutality of war been done a brilliantly impactful justice, their individualities too as massacred within the confinement of words like “refugee” are inked with tears of unspoken pain. This story seeks belonging within you as each family member is either lost to war or the memories it left behind. It makes your heart feel heavy for each of these characters, in a way you might never have known heaviness. It’s pain, yearning, love, & everything “wrapped in a storm of paper & ink.”

I struggle to sum up this book but let Susan Abulhawa’s words write a beautiful conclusion: “Our bond was Palestine. It was a language we dismantled to construct a home.”

2) The Beekeeper Of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Set in Syrian Civil War, this book makes space for immigrants, Nuri, the beekeeper, and Afra, the artist, and his wife, as they seek a home in Europe away from their home, Syria. The ache of losing a home, and the struggle to “create’’ a home away from home, the absence of belonging, the sad poetries of strengthening togetherness in a married life while war & displacement take a heavy toll, even on the air they breathe, is what you should expect from this book. And, being enclosed in the word “ refugee” is a lifelong reminder of not belonging anywhere and the struggles that come with it.
Quoting Christy, “When you belong to someone and they are gone, who are you?” Belonging, somehow becomes the biggest seeking, the most acceptable meaning life can have.

3) The Book Of Gold Leaves By Mirza Waheed
Set in the 90’s of Kashmir, this is a love story of Faiz, a young papier-mâché artist, and Roohi, a youthful beauty dreaming of a fairytale love. Blooming in the crevices of war, their love story is like the vast canvas of Faiz who lets his imagination be the art and light living in the darkness of war & blood. With a beautiful cover of flowers blooming, this book takes you in the crevices of Kashmir, its political and social life throbbing with pain, hope, affection – all held together by firm threads of belief. An honest read – politically, socially & emotionally, demanding the soft corners of your heart. And, wars, I’d say carry over a lifetime in our memories, in places we love to be, in the silent losses of our beloved people to its bleeding grasp. Quoting Mirza Waheed, “There are a thousand quiet heartbreaks, amid the loud ones that we hear about. She sometimes thinks. Some carry on quietly, over a lifetime.”


4) The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini
Set in the 90’s Afghanistan, this book fleshes out the raw emotions of friendships, families, betrayal, guilt and atonement, as war wades in the lives of Amir, Hassan & their people. As homes got replaced by debris of memories, war became the emotion that drove people back & forth from home and the people that felt like home. ”For you, a thousand times over,” this becomes the echo of the hearts of different characters, an expression of affection & promise that stays with them, isn’t it beautiful? Moving your heart in a way that you want to hold your friendships & families a lot more gently, this book will stay with you. Not just on your shelves, but within the rooms of your heart.

5) The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas By John Boyne

Heart-breaking & heart-warming, this book set in World war II, is rightly placed in Holocaust fiction. The characters being Bruno & Shmuel; Bruno, a 9-year old boy, living in Berlin, is forced to leave his childhood life & friends to move to Auschwitz and seek a companion in loneliness in another little boy, Shmuel, a Jew. Bruno and Shmuel interact on the opposite sides of a “fence”, reflecting how same humans belonging to different political backgrounds are perceived in war, and how friendships of children dissolve borders and its inhumane standards defined by power. This book doesn’t go to the extreme consequences of the war but how war affects normal people leading normal lives (which actually adds up to produce greater consequences) . Thinking of Shmuel as an innocent, 9-year-old boy breaks something within your heart, while thinking of their genuine friendship lends your heart some hope.

As you read these books, I hope the love of home is etched in you even more, scattered around an understanding of dissolving borders & differences.

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
– Jean Rhys.