Waiting on Wednesday: Farishta
Jill at Breaking the Spine hosts Waiting on Wednesday to highlight a not yet published book you can't wait to read.
My pick this week is Farishta by Patricia McArdle. It recently won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for General Fiction.
Patricia McArdle, a resident of Arlington, Va., is a retired American diplomat whose postings have taken her around the world, including northern Afghanistan. Her novel, Farishta, centers around a female American diplomat who, transferred to a volatile, remote outpost in northern Afghanistan, provides aid to refugee women fleeing the violence. She becomes their farishta, or "angel," in the local Dari language. Julie Barer of Barer Literary, LLC, one of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award’s expert panelists, described McArdle’s Farishta as "a moving and fascinating story of one woman’s work in a place that few Americans have experienced beyond newspaper headlines and CNN stories. Both the originality of the setting and the quality of the writing make this debut stand out in the crowd."Farishta will be released June 2, 2011. Pre-order it now in hardback
or Kindle version
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This looks great!
ReplyDeleteI just read about this on the Penguin website today! It does sound good. Nice pick!
ReplyDeleteMy WoW this week is Charles de Lint's The Painted Boy.
I hadn't heard of this before so thanks for highlighting it. It sounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks so much for picking my book. Below is a bit more about the plot. I hope readers enjoy Farishta when it comes out next summer. I think it's a pretty good story. I spent four years writing it after I returned from Afghanistan at the end of 2005. A lot of the novel is based on my experiences in that country.
ReplyDelete-Pat McArdle
In 2004, American diplomat Angela Morgan is informed by the State Department that she must accept a one-year assignment at a remote NATO outpost in Afghanistan with the British Army or risk being forced to resign from the Foreign Service. Angela has battled untreated PTSD for more than twenty years. Her life and career have been drifting since she witnessed her husband's death during the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. At a meeting in London on her way to Afghanistan Angela has a highly charged encounter with a British major more than a decade her junior. During the year they spend at the camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, their confrontational relationship develops into a powerful attraction that both are reluctant to express. At the same time, a Russian diplomat, whom Angela befriends while transiting Dubai, gradually wins her trust with disastrous results. When she arrives at the fortified military camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, the British soldiers and her young Afghan interpreter make it clear they are not pleased to have a female in their midst. Frustrated by her inability to contribute to Afghanistans reconstruction Angela begins leaving camp without permission and hidden under a burkah to work with a group of refugees. Her growing friendship with a young Afghan woman incurs the wrath of a powerful warlord in the north. When attacks are launched against the NATO troops with deadly effect, she must deal with wrenching personal losses.
Wow! Thanks so much for picking my book. Below is a bit more about the plot. I hope readers enjoy Farishta when it comes out next summer. I think it's a pretty good story. I spent four years writing it after I returned from Afghanistan at the end of 2005. A lot of the novel is based on my experiences in that country.
ReplyDelete-Pat McArdle
In 2004, American diplomat Angela Morgan is informed by the State Department that she must accept a one-year assignment at a remote NATO outpost in Afghanistan with the British Army or risk being forced to resign from the Foreign Service. Angela has battled untreated PTSD for more than twenty years. Her life and career have been drifting since she witnessed her husband's death during the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. At a meeting in London on her way to Afghanistan Angela has a highly charged encounter with a British major more than a decade her junior. During the year they spend at the camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, their confrontational relationship develops into a powerful attraction that both are reluctant to express. At the same time, a Russian diplomat, whom Angela befriends while transiting Dubai, gradually wins her trust with disastrous results. When she arrives at the fortified military camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, the British soldiers and her young Afghan interpreter make it clear they are not pleased to have a female in their midst. Frustrated by her inability to contribute to Afghanistans reconstruction Angela begins leaving camp without permission and hidden under a burkah to work with a group of refugees. Her growing friendship with a young Afghan woman incurs the wrath of a powerful warlord in the north. When attacks are launched against the NATO troops with deadly effect, she must deal with wrenching personal losses.