The book has as its core the resolve of a man to be the one who will bring about change. The man Ziauddin Yousafzai emerges as a man every village which is still undeveloped in the subcontinent needs. There is a Ziauddin Yousafzai and that is why there is a Malala. The book’s focus is on Malala but chapter after chapter as one goes on, one tends to think about Ziauddin at every stage as the one who is making Malala happen.
The book is written by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb; in terms of a read it means be prepared for different narrative styles in different chapters and also sometimes in the same chapter. At times, it gives me a feel that the book has been pushed to be released by a deadline and actually needed a few more edits and integration. There are sections where I would have loved the story to keep rolling but it stops abruptly and then there are sections which have been stretched too long and look like attempts to justify actions or camouflage inaction.
I Am Malala builds up the background to the almost successful attempt at assassination of Malala very well. It tells me stories about Swat and Pashtuns, it tells me stories about Pakistan and its generals, it tells me stories about corruption and corruption in education, it almost tells me everything and transports me to Malala’s world. It takes me there to see first-hand what can make someone shoot a 15-year-old girl.
‘I am Miracle’, we can say that. I Am Malala is surely going to push every father in the Indian subcontinent to look for a Ziauddin Yousafzai in him. I Am Malala is also surely going to motivate every girl from Swat or from a Pashtun family or from Pakistan or from all other nations which define the Indian subcontinent, to know her rights, stand-up for them and fight to get them and keep them.
Go ahead, read it.