I started reading this book and straight away I felt "at home". I was very impressed with how it felt so familiar and like a pair of old slippers. It was almost like chatting to an old friend.
This novel starts off during 1981 in Kabul as Noor and her family flee Afghanistan when the Russians invade. They become refugees and move to Peshawar in Pakistan. The book then moves onto 1991 and she meets Charlie Matthews, an American aid worker. From here this novel becomes very cross-genre.
Refuge is a mixture of historical fiction, politics, culture, religion, land mine clearance, refugee camps and romance. This mixture works well and makes for an enjoyable read. I liked the context of the story and getting the full picture. It was a good book to escape into and I liked how all the background and information was woven into the story, so that readers who are not experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan, can understand the problems involved.
There is a lot of action in this novel but no sex to upset your grandmother. The plot is a little convenient to make the story work but this is a good daily read. The quality of writing and character development is good. There is a warmth that comes through which is very similar to the news reports filed about the Middle East by Robert Fisk for the Independent newspaper. It was this warmth among the poverty, politics, jihad, struggle and violence that made me feel so "at home". Osborne ticks all the boxes for an intelligent, informative and entertaining read. Although I did NOT like the ending, this is still a top score 5 star read. It will make you think before you run after a football!
Refuge is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2012.
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