Atiq Rahimi

Earth and Ashes is a spare, haunting novella set in Afghanistan during the Soviet war. Dastaguir, an elderly man, travels with his young grandson, Yassin, through a devastated landscape after their village is destroyed in a bombing. Dastaguir must find a way to tell his son, who works in a distant mine, that the rest of their family has been killed. Meanwhile, Yassin, whose hearing has been damaged by the explosion, struggles to understand what has happened and why the world around him has changed so dramatically. Through their journey, Rahimi portrays the devastating consequences of war on ordinary people, particularly children and the elderly. The novella explores grief, silence, trauma, and the difficulty of communicating unbearable truths in a world where violence has shattered both families and communities.