Title: Jasmine Days
Author: Benyamin
Translator: Shanaz Habib
Pages: 264

Genre: Fiction

The narrator of the story who moves to an unnamed middle eastern country to live with her father and relatives. She worked in a radio station. Her world was happy with supporting friends, caring family until a revolution hits the country, She meets Ali from the radio station. Their friendship bonds over facebook through music. They attend music sessions ” String Walkers” together. The whole book is from the perspective of Sameera who is narrating her story to Javed. She is an “outsider” getting to know her perspective is beautiful, which adds more grace to the book. Ali living in the same country is a “second class”. The book has many characters which allow the reader to get different perspectives. Politics, inequality, religion, war are the major topics revolving in the story. I am not a huge fan of politics but the writing kept me gripped throughout the story. Writing style being effective is also easy to read. The characters are built well and how they lead to an important part of the story. The emotions and how the protagonist feels at a certain point of time are displayed beautifully. The ending could have been better is the only downside of the book for me. Overall, a great emotional read!