''Jasmine Days'' is a 2014

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

novel by Benyamin and translated into English by

Shahnaz Habib Shahnaz Habib is an Indian essayist, fiction writer, travel writer, and translator based in the United States of America. She teaches writing at Bay Path University and The New School, and works as a consultant for the United Nations. In 2018, s ...

. It tells the story of Sameera Parvin, a young Pakistani woman who works as a radio jockey in an unnamed Middle Eastern country which is on the verge of revolution. First published in 2014 as ''Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal'', the novel won the inaugural

JCB Prize JCB Prize for Literature is an Indian literary award established in 2018. It is awarded annually with prize to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer. The winners will be an ...

. It was published by

Juggernaut Books Juggernaut Books (informally Juggernaut) is digital book publishing house headquartered in New Delhi, India. The publisher emphasizes on short length books written by new writers. It also allows writers to self-publish their books through their ...

Development

Writer Benyamin has been living in

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

for 20 years and his novel ''

Goat Days ''Goat Days'' (original Malayalam title: ''Aadujeevitham'') is a 2008 Malayalam-language novel by Indian author Benyamin. It is about an abused Malayali migrant worker employed in Saudi Arabia as a goatherd against his will. The novel is base ...

'' (2008) tells the story of an abused Indian migrant worker in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. He said that the real-life incidents of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

served as the inspiration for ''Jasmine Days''. He also developed the main characters based on the personalities of his own friends and acquaintances.

Reception

Trisha Gupta of

Scroll.in ''Scroll.in'', simply referred to as ''Scroll'', is an Indian digital news publication owned by the Scroll Media Incorporation. It publishes content in both Hindi and English languages. Founded in 2014, the website and its journalists have won ...

felt that the novel has "more locales, many more characters and a much more complex political landscape" than Benyamin's previous work. She wrote: "But what Benyamin pulls off again is Sameera’s voice: the almost spoken-word simplicity with which this landscape is rendered makes it hard not to listen." C.P Surendran of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' called it "a serious effort to come to terms with the world around us." But, he felt that the novel is "not exceptionally inspirational either in terms of writing or flow of the narrative." Faizal Khan of '' The Financial Express'' wrote: "Benyamin’s craft of conversation-driven storytelling succeeds in revealing the tensions in a society starting to unravel. Nearly every character has a story from their tradition to add to the local narrative." Supriya Nair of ''

Mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...

'' called, "The novel is told in first person, but it isn’t really concerned with interiority: it’s the great knock-about events of the story, its gasping pace of riots, deaths, family feuds and mourning, that imbalances our senses." Nandini Nair felt that the "power of ''Jasmine Days'' is that it tells a compelling story, but doesn't take sides."

References

{{reflist

External links

''Jasmine Days''
at

2014 Indian novels Malayalam novels Novels set in the Middle East Juggernaut Books books