Blood of Stone
Description
In Blood of Stone, Tariq Malik revisits Kotli, the 1,000-year-old city of his formative years in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Marked by the traumas of dislocation and migration, the city and its inhabitants share secrets and longings, chronicled and imagined by Malik as he gives voice to a personal history that precedes his experiences as an immigrant in Canada. As the inhabitants of Kotli are forced to branch out in search of home, their stories expand to encompass the diaspora of Malik’s fellow mohijar. Named for the earthy, familiar scent present after rainfall, Blood of Stone is a compelling, luminous celebration of people and place.
Reviews
“At its heart, a sensorial feast, Blood of Stone, is a homage to Kotli Loharan.… The braiding of text and image in Blood of Stone situates thematic elements such as home, memory, loss, friendship, love, and mobility alongside the sensory.… For readers, particularly those from South Asia or the tropics, the pull into Malik’s world begins with the smell of warm earth and rain.… ‘Kotli Petrichor’ is peppered with images of relics of a bygone era for which there is a considerable longing.”
—Dr. Prabhjot Parmar, from the foreword to Blood of Stone