Farida Mila Nazari's Afghan love story, The Place Where The Light Enters, is a work of fiction, although it is based on true events.
In the late '70s, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and ruthlessly murdered hundreds of thousands of intellectuals, businessmen and professionals.
Directly before that time, Farida's father was the mayor of Mazār-e Sharif, the country’s fourth largest city. Farida was among the fortunate who managed to escape, eventually emigrating to the U.S.
During her final months in Afghanistan, reminiscent of the 1930s in Germany, Austria and Poland when the Nazi’s rounded up the Jews, the Afghan people lived in a state of terror.
Friends and family never knew “who would be next.” Just as with every Holocaust survivor, these memories left Farida with indelible scars.
As you read her work you will enter the enchanted world of Rumi, Hafiz, and other highly celebrated Middle-Eastern writers.
Rich with metaphors and a dreamy surrealism, you will soon become immersed in the romance of warm moonlit nights with seductive music and exotic flowers… incense, food and dance forming a sensuous backdrop for profuse, heartrending outpourings of the soul.
It is this perfumed, otherworldly atmosphere that Farida manages to capture on paper—a feat in itself, since English is not her first language.
This is an Afghan love story you will remember.
Enjoy a Review of The Place Where The Light Enters
Excerpt from Laurel Johnson's Review of The Place Where The Light Enters:
The famous Sufi mystic and Persian poet, Rumi, says light enters us through our wounds. The author has woven an incredible tapestry of wounds, light, love, joy and sorrow in this book. It is a work of fiction, based solidly on real life.
When Setara Shams dies unexpectedly, her son Cameron finds her journals in the attic.
The history he discovers and the memories recorded transport him to earlier places and times.
His beautiful Afghani mother wanted to be a writer. Her words take Cameron to an Afghan world of breathtaking beauty as Setara shares her early life of colorful flowers, prayers, laughter, music and traditions.
And she experiences the exquisite sweetness of love with family friend, David Shams. Life in Setara’s world is peaceful and joyful before the Russian-Afghan war shatters her serene existence.
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