Kashmir: The Untold Story:

This was a complex read for me, and I am the first to admit I don't have the context to take too much from it. The book sets out to cut through the propaganda and misreporting that often turns Kashmir into an issue of religion (which the book explains is not the case, and that it is a political issue).

Published in 2004, with a backdrop of the 2003 election its content, contemporary at the time, is probably quite dated. The author, a journalist who has spent 20 years reporting in Kashmir, interviews and quotes many people, writes about many others all of whom I found it hard to take in. There are also lots of other journalist opinions presented and quoted throughout the book.

Ultimately I didn't get what I had hoped from the book - which is probably more about my expectations than the book - and as a result I would read a bit then put it aside for another book, thereby breaking up the reading further and not achieving the continuity. Probably I should have cut my losses and given it up rather than persisting with it.

2 stars