There is a certain simplicity that captured me, yet the seriousness of the theme wasn’t lost. He brings out the bitterness and harsh realities very frankly. We can see that the book is well-researched: details gathered from historical events, Islamic texts, and anecdotes of people from the Arab countries.Īnyone who read Benyamin’s Aadujeevitham(Goat Days) would be familiar with his heart-touching characters and intense emotions that he portrays through his lucid writing style. It seems like this book is a very long preface to it Jasmine Days. There is a banned novel mentioned in this book, which plays a major role in the events of the story and puts the characters through a lot of trouble. The characters in it were unique, very realistic, and kept me wondering more about them.

Prathap’s search for Jasmine, his lost lover (the love which he describes as “love that got etched on my bonemarrow”), was so properly blended with the plot, making the book a real page-turner. Though the book is quite lengthy and includes many historical and geographical references, I never quite felt bored or overwhelmed by all the details because it was narrated skillfully, with a strong yet lucid style of writing. How a city can transform people and vice-versa. Something that fascinated me is the description of how a city is so different when viewed from the surface and the astonishing details we get when one delves deeper. This book is a collection of different experiences of different kinds of people from this tumultuous Arab city through the point-of-view of Prathap, focusing on the events of the Jasmine revolution.

Although the city is unnamed in this book, it is described as a place between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Prathap, a journalist, arrives in an Arabian city for a strange novel project along with three of his colleagues. Language: Malayalam( English translation available)Īl Arabian Novel Factory by Benyamin is the twin novel of Jasmine Days, the JCB Award Winning book of the same author. A very interesting historical fiction, focusing on the Jasmine Revolution of the Gulf Peninsula.

Jasmine days malayalam