
The moving story of a Kashmiri boy soldier from a prize-winning Irish author It's an ordinary morning at nine-year-old Rafiq's school in rural Kashmir when the silence of dawn prayers is ripped apart by gunfire Soldiers of the Kashmir Freedom Fighters have raided the village in search of new recruits
- they scrawl a line in chalk across the schoolroom wall & any boy whose height reaches the line will be taken to fight Rafiq is tall for his age
- the first boy to cross the chalkline into a life of brutality & terrorism This is the story of Rafiq's transformation from child to boy soldier as he is indoctrinated into the cause of fanatical belief But his family have not forgotten him; when he can no longer recognize himself they remember the boy he was & reach out a hand of redemption as he spirals towards a final act of atrocity