Book Review
Title: Blood and Ink
Author: Stephen Davies
Genre: YA/Romance/Contemporary
Rating: *****
Review: So I requested Blood and Ink last year and never got around to it, but I am clearing my NetGalley shelves, so I am now. I must say I didn’t know a lot about it when I requested but the synopsis sounds really interesting: “Part thriller, part love story, this contemporary YA novel is based on true-to-life events in Mali in 2012 and centres around the power of individuals to take a stand against terrorism. Kadi is the 15-year-old daughter of a librarian in modern-day Timbuktu. Ali is the son of shepherds and has been conscripted by the Defenders of Faith, an arm of Al Qaeda. When these two teens meet, it’s hate at first sight. Forced together by a series of tumultuous events, their feelings slowly but persistently turn into something more, causing Kadi to let her guard down and Ali to discover her family’s secret hiding place for the manuscripts her family is tasked with safeguarding. Kadi undertakes a dangerous operation to smuggle the manuscripts out of the city, while Ali and his military commander are soon in pursuit. Ali’s loyalties will never be more in question than when Kadi’s life is in danger.”
So before we even get into the novel, there is a lot of background information and history you need to know. There are three groups of people in this novel: The people of Timbuktu – As you may already know, Timbuktu is a real city. You can find it on a map on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Its people are – brace yourself for two massive generalisations – poor but peace-loving. They are followers of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam. They are proud of their vast manuscript collections, their wonderful music and their much-visited shrines (burial places of Timbuktu’s scholars and holy men). The Tuareg rebels – The Tuaregs are an ethnic group in West Africa. The men are sometimes called ‘the lords of the Sahara’. They wear indigo turbans and ride camels through the desert, buying and selling salt. The Tuaregs live in Mali and other West African countries but they have always longed to have a country of their own, right in the middle of the Sahara desert. This imagined homeland, Azawad, will be at least the size of Spain, and its three main cities will be Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu. The Defenders of Faith – There are many militant Islamist groups in the Sahara Desert. One is called AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb). Another is called ‘Defenders of Faith’ (Arabic: Ansar Dine). They hate the West and its allies, including the government of Mali, and they long for a strict form of Muslim law to be imposed across West Africa.
We must also know in March 2012 there was a military coup in Mali. The President fled from his palace and the country was plunged into utter confusion. Confusion meant vulnerability. The Tuareg rebels saw an opportunity to conquer the northern region of Mali and establish their glorious homeland Azawad. The Defenders of Faith saw a chance to establish the Islamic state they had always dreamed of. The two groups decided that by working together they could achieve both of these aims. On 30 March, they captured Kidal. On 31 March, they invaded Gao. On 1 April their fighters massed in the desert north of Timbuktu, preparing to attack. So, after all that, we still have quite an extensive glossary before the novel even begins and my mind is overloaded already. As the novel finally starts the first perspective, we get is Ali’s.
Ali is one of several young boys to have been conscripted into the Defenders of Faith and is one of the ten boys chosen to ride into battle with the rest of the army. We learn that Ali and the other boys have been training for this moment to give the army the element of surprise. As Kidal and Gao have already fallen to the Defenders of Faith, they plan to launch an attack on Timbuktu that night. The boys don’t seem to have been brainwashed but they genuinely believe in what the scriptures tell and what their leaders say. We then switch to Kadija or Kadi’s perspective. Kadi lives in Timbuktu and her family is there when the attack Ali is a part begins and we see the drastic contrast between the beliefs of these two sets of people.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Timbuktu has fallen to the Defenders of Faith and now we see the clashes of religious ideas as the Defenders of Faith try to convert the people of Timbuktu to their way of thinking. When refused they use violence and intimidation to get their way, Kadi and Ali don’t have a good first meeting when he destroys her instruments because they are now forbidden, it is cruel as Kadi loves music and the punishment for breaking the rules is either beatings or death. From the beginning, I had a feeling that this novel was going to leave me in tears and with a very heavy heart considering this novel is based on real events.
We are learning a lot not only about the history of the country but the religious concepts of the different religious sects fighting for control. However, there is a friendship of sorts developing between Ali and Kadi as he watches over her and even warns her when the Defenders of Faith comes to break up her friend’s wedding in the desert where they are playing outlawed music. To get back at him Kadi changes the ringtone on Ali’s phone but feels disgusted with herself when he gets twenty lashes for it and a huge part of her wants to leap to his defence but can’t as it will be seen as going against her own people.
With the institution of sharia law, the people of Timbuktu are afraid, but they haven’t given up. We see this most clearly when an 11-year-old girl is to be flogged for not wearing a veil, so the women and girls decide to hold a protest, but this only ends with lots of them in hospital although none were killed. I was surprised by this as apart from the initial invasion the Defenders of Faith actually seem reluctant to kill people. Ali and Kadi’s relationship swings back and forth between understanding and hate depending on the situation they are in. Ali also seems to be developing romantic feelings for Kadi as he doesn’t turn her in when he has the chance and even bends the rules of his religion to spend time with her although he tries to convince himself he isn’t actually bending the rules. Ali also seems to be determined to prove to Kadi that Sharia law applies to the Defenders of Faith as well the people of Timbuktu which was an interesting touch.
The Defenders of Faith encounter resistance no matter where they go and as they don’t want to kill people, they resort to trying to break the resolve. They destroy and desecrate the tombs of their saints and go after the Holy manuscripts that Kadi’s family have been protecting for generations. When Ali leads Redbeard to the place where the manuscript are hidden, he is surprised to see that Kadi and Yusuf have set a booby trap for them and have already moved the manuscripts to another safe place.
In the end, Ali has a choice to make he can let Kadi die during her false punishment and continue the way he is or save her, renounce Redbeard’s teaching and embrace his true name of Abdullai. The ending of Blood and Ink was beautiful, heart-breaking and hopeful all at the same time. If you haven’t read this then I highly recommended you pick it up. A solid 5* read.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from NetGalley
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