The country with which one is most apt to compare it is, naturally, Switzerland. But there is no place where one can see a complete circle of snowy mountains surrounding a plain of anything like the length and breadth of the Kashmir valley, for the main valleys of Switzerland are like the side valleys of Kashmir. The great broad reaches in the river, glistening in the sunlight and fringed with the rich autumnal foliage, were superlatively beautiful....

Relying on her experience as a twenty-year-veteran correspondent of the Kashmir conflict and her twelve-year friendship with the Dar family, Justine Hardy weaves together a kaleidoscope of viewpoints--from reformed jihadists and Indian generals to Pandit refugees and members of the Dar family--as she recounts the story of Kashmir's troubled past and equally unstable present.

"Do only Muslims live in Kashmir? Why do girls in Kashmir do stone pelting? Whom do they want freedom from? Can you imagine being confined to the four walls of your home with no internet, no social media? Are Kashmiris really invisible to the rest of the country? These are some of the questions two teenagers--Saumya in Delhi and Duaa in Kashmir--asked through letters they exchanged over almost three years. Framing these letters is the detailed history...

Ex-Israeli operative turned private investigator, Dotan Naor-- to settle a bet-- agrees to locate the missing son of former acquaintance, now ruthless Israeli arms merchant, Willy Mizrachi. Willy, who does not hesitate to sell killing machines to the most heinous players in the world, is desperate to find his only son, Itiel, who has headed to an ashram in the Himalayas. The Himalayas are also host to groups of young Israelis who have completed their...