Written by an expatriate, If covers a wide span of area ranging from "Sylhet to Ontario", as Faiz Ahmed puts it. The plot is poignant and to the point. One has empathy for the central figure, James, who is a war child and ends up dying with AIDS, longing for his actual mother in Bangladesh. The author hopes to ultimately make a film from the book, given the chance, with visual images elaborating on emotions and scenes.

The book is in Bangla, interspersed with names of people and places in English and is printed in Banglabazar, with the dust-jacket done by the author himself. The picaresque novel is based on actuality and elaborated with fiction. The plot veers backwards and forwards in time, and makes for interesting reading. If revised, said the cultural experts, this commercial novel could gain more depth. However, the author says, he wants the message to be brief but to the point.

With passion for the stage and a love for movies, Mohsin has written as a youth but this is his first attempt in serious writing as an adult. A Vancouver -based garment manufacturer by profession, the author -- who was disillusioned by his earlier political role in Bangladesh as an MP-- wishes to donate the sale proceeds of the book for AIDS victims in Bangladesh.

Mohsin says, "I met the protagonist, James Watson, 32,in Vancouver in 2003. A war victim of 1971, he was found on the streets of Bangladesh, and adopted by someone in Canada. For some reason he became alienated from society and his foster family. He ultimately died with AIDS, pining for his Bangladeshi mother."

Returning home, he mulled over writing on this poignant anti-war subject, taking six months to complete the book. He didn't touch the war scene in 64 pages, but was lucky to get Genius in Banglabazar to print in record time, before he moved off to Vancouver once again. He hopes to be back by Ekushey Mela in February this year to make a record sale of his book.

Mohsin's central message is that if the war didn't take place, the protagonist wouldn't perhaps have been so confused and alienated, nor an AIDS victim. "There is always a logic behind a war, but a war shouldn't have such adverse effect on a normal person's life e.g. the hero didn't have to die in the flower of his manhood. I made up characters with fictitious names, as my imagination took wing. The elements of tears are blended with bits and pieces of joy. " The author feels that people in this day and age can discuss and work out their problems -- without resorting to violent and gruesome wars.