SAMPLING The Humanitarian...
The goats Shahbaz tended were spread evenly on the slopes within his peripheral vision, contentedly chewing on scrub and grass which grew abundantly on the lower slopes...
FROM HIS VANTAGE point on the natural outcrop which jutted from the mountainside, he sat and gazed out across the valley. Shahbaz, the shepherd boy, was eleven, but he looked younger and smaller than his years. His slight frame shivered in the freshness of the morning air. But he could already feel the soothing warmth of the low sun through the woollen blanket draped around his shoulders, as it climbed above the peaks and chased the shadows of the mountains away.
IN THE HALF-LIGHT of the early morning a whisper of mist still veiled the mountainside as Selby reached the small plateau where the village lay. Khurram Masood had led the way along the steep, winding track from the valley below. The man from Gilgit knew the mountains like no other.
The barefooted little girl in a ragged tunic was the first to be seen and stood motionless, staring through her tangled hair at the ‘gora’ slowly approaching, breathing heavily.
She judged he was unmistakably a white man, despite the grey Shalwar Kameez he wore and the Afghan hat pulled forward low across his forehead. And there was a football wedged under....
PREVIEWS What they are saying about The Humanitarian
"For most people, mercifully, natural disasters are things that happen on the telly, to other people. The Humanitarian takes you 'there' - to a place where ordinary people are left to fathom the unfathomable. Goss's intimate interweaving of fact and fiction around the 2005 Kashmir earthquake disaster takes readers to places they will never forget and, God-willing, they will never have to go."
Peter Foster, Financial Times
"Based around the 2005 earthquake which left a lasting trail of destruction in Kashmir, Goss’s novel describes the depth of human emotions of sympathy and of hatred in a land where instability lives, and aid workers struggle not only against the hazards brought by collapsing houses and destructive avalanches but also deep cultural barriers. The novel is true to its theme and the story told with heartfelt emotion."
Kamila Hyat, Columnist and human rights activist
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