Ismaiel, an Iranian refugee living in Holland, inherits the notebooks of his deaf-and-dumb father, Aga Akbar.

ECONOMIST: Novels from the Netherlands

The multilingual revolutionary leader dodged British soldiers on guard outside his grand Calcutta home in the early 1940s and, posing as a deaf-and-dumb Pathan tribesman, sneaked across the border into Afghanistan.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia