Banu Bidarkund explores the bond of friendship in The Rising

The flavor is more like reading an elongated short story.

Having said that, I have to admit that it is a pleasant read, indeed.

Every person goes through that one incident in life that irrevocably changes his or life. It is during these life-changing situations that we understand who our true friends are and where our loyalties should lie. This story also portrays such a situation very beautifully.

Each chapter has a twist in store and that keeps the story moving forward. The beauty of the story lies in the universal emotion it captures.

We come across so many people in life. We make so many friends and get emotionally attached to them. But not all the relations are right for us, not all the friends we make are true.

We come to understand the difference between right and wrong and true and false only when we are faced with adversities.

The people who stand by us in trying conditions are the ones who truly belong to us.

Life has a strange way of showing us the reality.

It is only through ugliness that we learn to appreciate beauty. It is only by knowing pain that we learn to recognize happiness. The author has brought out this dichotomy of life very beautifully through his book.

The characters in this book are regular people like us who have dreams and aspirations, who love and make mistakes and hurt other people and get hurt in return.

Then there are characters who are going through personal crisis and yet find the time to come and support a friend in need.

story establishes how important family is in our lives.

And the best character is the young soldier who comes to a timely rescue and saves the day.

All in all, the different characters with their different backgrounds and varied life stories merge together and create a colorful canvas.

For a pleasant afternoon read, this book is a perfect one.

The book is priced at 140 and is available at Flipkart, Ebay Shopclues, Paytm and in power-publishers.com

(Reviewed by Liza Gomes)