Fidali’s Way by George Mastras 

On June 20th five members of our group met at Leslie’s home to discuss the book.

In the first part of the book we meet Nicholas Sunder who has spent months backpacking through South Asia. The French woman he met during his travels is found brutally murdered in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Nick is arrested as the main suspect and tortured by the Pakistani police. However, Nick miraculously escapes their custody and heads off on foot through the steep mountains of Kashmir, the highest war zone on earth where he realises he cannot survive until he encounters an eccentric Kashmiri smuggler and his mysterious companion, Fidali. An enormous, nearly silent man, Fidali not only knows a hidden way through the mountains but makes a deep impression upon Nick through his sacrifices for others.

The other part of the book tells the story of Aysha who lives in an idyllic mountain village in Indian-occupied Kashmir.  She is disillusioned as her childhood sweetheart chose to become a moudjaheen after being brainwashed by the mullah in his madrassa. Aysha is sent off to India to study medicine and operates a medical clinic in the town where Nick ends up during his odyssey. It is there he will confront the divide between Islam and the West and be forced to ponder how he has reached such a place – forced to consider, in other words, Fidali’s way.

Pam who was leading the discussion started off by ‘confessing’ that the framework of the questions was created by using Artificial Intelligence. 

AI basically divided the discussion into 

-Themes of Identity and Transformation: touching a lot of redemption, which was a very central topic in this book

-Setting and Atmosphere: portraying the impressive setting of the Himalayas, which the author was able to describe very well from his own travels to that region

-Love and Human Connection: dividing the book into two stories and all coming together in the last part of the book. The author tried to connect people from very different backgrounds and characters resulting into deep friendships and mutual respect.

-Final Reflections: describing the title of the book and linking it to understanding and bridging cultural differences

Apart from some cheesy parts in the love stories all of us liked the book which contains lots of interesting quotes leading Nick through his impressive spiritual renewal.

Leslie served a very delicious Canadian lunch.