Mirza Waheed was born and brought up in Kashmir. His debut novel The Collaborator was an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Shakti Bhatt Prize, and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. It was also book of the year for Telegraph, New Statesman, Financial Times, Business Standard and the Telegraph (India), among others. Waheed has written for the BBC, Guardian, Granta, Guernica, Al JazeeraEnglish and the New York Times. He lives in London.Two lovers are destined to meet in the city of Srinagar. Roohi is a beautiful,spirited girl who is haunted by dreams of a mysterious man she believes is hertrue love. Faiz is a young papier mâché artist on the cusp of painting his masterpiece,the Falaknuma. When fate conspires to bring them together on one windsweptevening, both fall irrevocably in love.But it is 1991. Kashmir is simmering with political strife, and it is only a matter of timebefore Srinagar is engulfed in the gathering storm. Before they know it, the city they callhome erupts in violence, threatening everything that the two lovers hold dear.An ageold tale of love, war, duty and choice, The Book of Gold Leaves is as devastatinglyresonant as it is beautifully written.
