摘要：The frame tale of Jaspreet Singh’s Chef follows the narrator, Kip, on a train journey into his past in Indian-controlled Kashmir where he worked as a military chef in the General’s kitchen some twenty years earlier. The General has sent him a letter requesting that he return to Kashmir to prepare the upcoming wedding feast for his daughter, who is shockingly engaged to marry a Muslim. The wedding, like the stories of the other characters’ lives, will not end happily-ever-after. Kip has also just learned that he has a brain tumour and is given only three months to live, a prognosis that sets the tone for the entire novel. Kip’s personal tragedy is held up as a mirror for the hopeless political situation in Kashmir. Warning: this is not a book for casual bedtime reading, or for those who are easily overwhelmed by bleakness. But while the outcomes are bleak, the stories themselves – the individual lives of the characters – are vibrantly narrated and emotionally charged. And strangely, amidst so much pain and conflict, beauty infiltrates this novel: scenes are described like paintings, poetry fills the final pages.
