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, and 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 and 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, and reach out a hand of redemption as he spirals towards a final act of atrocity.
