Book Review: A Long Season of Ashes A Memoir by Siddhartha Gigoo

Satyarth Pandita reviews Siddhartha Gigoo’s memoir A Long Season of Ashes (Published by Penguin Random house India, 2024) observing how it is memories of exile trauma.

• ISBN: 9780670098262
• Publisher: Penguin Random House 
• Imprint: India Viking 
• Published: Jan/2024 
• Pages: 480
• MRP: ₹699.00

When I received the book, “A Long Season of Ashes” and held it in my hands, I hesitated to open it for a while as I found myself entranced by its cover. Instead of diving into the text, I became captivated by the imagery before me. The cover painting by Veer Munshi depicts three elderly Kashmiri Pandits engaged in conversation far removed from their homes, in a no man’s land. Above them, dark and ominous clouds hang, symbolic of death, destruction, and an uncertain future. One of the men clutches his belongings tightly― a green item resembling a cushion or bedding, a black umbrella, and a tan kangri, all held together with a piece of rope. While the two men on the edges, facing each other, converse, the central figure remains silent, covering his mouth in lamentation, gazing directly at the readers yet seeming to look through them. The cover painting captures the collective suffering and turmoil of the Kashmiri Pandit community through these three compelling figures portraying the past, the present, and the future of the community weathered by time and adversity. The back of the book depicts the same image, but interestingly, it is a mirror image of the front cover figures, with the pages separating the two serving as mirrors echoing the reflections of memories past.