Book Review: Allah's Garden (Thomas Hollowell)

Allah's Garden is a true story of a Moroccan doctor's 25-year imprisonment in Sahara Desert. Told alongside the author's own time as a volunteer, the two stories combine to unveil secrets held deep within the desolate land known as "Allah's Garden."

I know Allah's Garden is not of the YA genre - I won it as part of a Goodreads giveaway and am glad I did. It's a book which I feel everyone should read; it's shocking, horrifying, and appalling, yet genuinely inspirational.

Allah's Garden is a book out of my comfort zone; I often shy away from deliberately informing myself of the less than pleasant aspects of the human existence. However, I have been quite enlightened by this book.

Allah's Garden is both shocking in its description of the horrors of war - what made it more poignant is that is focuses on a little known conflict in the Sahara. It drives a point home: Known or not known, a war will always be a war. There will be masses hurt, injured or kill, human rights abuses, tortures, sacrifices made. It is horrifying and appalling - more so for me, as a normal teenage girl with no inkling whatsoever to the roughness of the outside world. Glimpsing this world in midst of abuses as a POW is an eye-opener.

The book handles this and in the foreground highlights the epic character of a man suffering through all these; the heart, hope and perseverance that allows Azeddine, a physician who has been held captive as a POW for 24 years, to endure each and every horror and to persevere against such circumstance. I felt the authors empathy and respect to the man; however, notwithstanding the author's sentiments, readers will inevitably grow to admire Azeddine. Such dedication is uncommon in many men.

There were parts of the book which I would have liked to be more elaborated; there were elements here and there that I wanted more clarifications, more detail. Whilst the book is generous in its description of the effects of this particular war, I felt that the general overview of the situation needed more focus.

Overall, Allah's Garden is a book I would recommend to all; its description of the horrors of war, particularly of a POW, is disturbing - yet not far from what is exactly occurring outside of our blinded sights.

Four Stars.