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** spoiler alert ** This award winning debut novel takes many unexpected turns as it weaves a complex story of history, war, love and death. The story blends a historical and fictional account of the Indian and Pakistani territorial dispute over Kashmir. It balances the imagery of the beauty and ruins of Kashmir with the desolate, icy living conditions on the Siachen Glacier at 21,000 feet above sea level.

I found the narrative layers more like that of a glacier than an onion, and the flashback style difficult to grasp the full depth. I received this book through Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ First Reads. On my inital reading I found it to be very confusing, and on my second to be quite brilliant.

Traveling by train from Delhi, Kirpal Singh, also known as Kip, is returning to beautiful, war torn Kashmir after a 14 year absence. He is prepared to deliver the perfect wedding banquet for the General’s daughter; in return he hopes to receive hospital care for his brain tumor. After overhearing a child’s innocent question about death, Kip asks himself the question, ‘Why did I allow my life to take a wrong turn?�

On the trip, he ponders about his life. At the age of 19, he is a new army recruit and an apprentice to Chef Kishen in General Sahib Kumar’s kitchen. Besides teaching both native and international cuisine, the Chef gives him a taste for German music and women. Kip has many misguided attempts at setting up an intimate female encounter. These show the depth of his naivete as well as the complexity of a region divided by Muslim, Sikh and Hindu beliefs. An enemy woman, challenges Kip’s views about the line drawn between his county and Pakistan.

‘The greatest gift he gave me was not food. Chef gave me a tongue.� In his many languages, Hindi, Punjabi, English and Kashmiri, Kip, uses the power of the spoken word. More importantly I found, is what was left unsaid and it is this detail that comes back again and again. One can’t help believe the story would have changed many times over had the words only been said. I think a hidden gem of this story is how it makes one think about the power of words, spoken and unspoken.