The Plague Upon Us

‘In times like these, truth is perhaps the only justice we can have, the only vengeance we can wreak.’ Blood drips from the pellet-stricken eyes of young Kashmiri men as Oubaid watches insurgency and violence rip through the streets of his homeland. A voice in his head tells him he knows who brought this plague upon them. But acknowledging it would mean that he must relive the horrors that have been inflicted on those he loves… Yet the voice will not leave Oubaid alone, and as he reluctantly confronts his past, there emerge four echoes of a story, narrated by four childhood friends – a youth caught in conflict, the daughter of a social climber, the son of a moneyed landlord and a militant. As their tales diverge and coalesce, they unravel a truth that is not always the sum of its parts – one that reveals the full tragedy of a people buffeted by circumstance and desperately seeking salvation. A taut, searing reflection of our times, The Plague upon Us announces the arrival of an arresting new voice in contemporary fiction.