Srinagar, Sept. 13 -- Shabir Ahmad Mir's new work The Last Knot is a bold experiment in Kashmiri fiction. It fuses folklore, history, and allegory to create a narrative that feels both timeless and urgently relevant. Set in nineteenth-century Kashmir under Dogra rule, the novel follows a carpet-weaver who dreams of crafting a flying carpet, which is not merely an object of fantasy, but a symbol of freedom, transcendence, and resistance to the harsh realities of his world.

Mir's prose is rich and atmospheric, turning the landscape into something almost animate. In its universe, the fort at Haer Parbat looms like a vulture, the lake mirrors the sky with uncanny stillness, the mountains seem to watch the unfolding human drama. These descrip...