The Bookseller of Kabul

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For more than twenty years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities, whether communist or Taliban, to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he has persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places. This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family - two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room apartment in this war-ravaged city. As they endure the extraordinary trials and tensions of Afghanistan's upheavals, they also still try to live ordinary lives, with work, relaxation, shopping, cooking, marriages, rivalries, and shared joys. Most of all, this is an intimate portrait of family life under Islam. Even after the Taliban's collapse, the women in Khan's family must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn, and communicate with others. Seierstad lived with Khan's family for months, experiencing first-hand Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Stepping back from the page, she allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions.

Customer Reviews:

The Bookseller of Kabul.......2007-10-19

This is a beautifully written book that chronicles a fascinating man committed to saving the culture of Afganistan. In it the author, who was granted amazing access, reveals the incredible hardships muslim women suffer and the indominable spirit of a resourceful man.

A wonderful and rich look at everyday life in Kabul.......2007-09-19

A year in the life of a wealthy (by Afghan standards) bookseller whose focus is the preservation of literature and books for the next generation. The lengths to which he will do this often compromise his family, best revealed in the irony of denying his sons the privilege of going to school so they can work in his shops. Beautifully observed and touching, particularly the roles of women in the patriarchal family structure, who must carefully manage how much they can dream about their own lives. You won't soon forget this story after you have read the last page.

Reading as a Dangerous Activity.......2007-08-23

This amazing story follows an Afghani bookseller and his family, who opened their doors to a Western journalist (Norwegian Asne Seierstad). She becomes part of the family in a desire to understand what daily life is like for Afghanis in their own country, particularly women. In this book, Seierstad shares this family's hardships, sorrows, and joy. Reeling from the ravages of war, mired in poverty, and limited by traditions of the Taliban, the Afghanistan that Seierstad brings us is even more compelling because of its inside look at what one middle class family must endure.

She brings us into the heart of matters: the bookseller's determination and drive to continue his trade (which included spending several years in jail, as well as living under censorship and illegal border crossings to bring books to the people of Kabul). She also examines the life of his children and his two wives. No other book captures so graphically what it is like to be a woman in a burka living in Afghanistan today. This book will have every Western woman thanking her lucky stars that she was born into more tolerant conditions that allow her a choice of career, marriage partner, and pursuit of her own happiness...freedoms most Westerners take for granted.

Because of her journalist status, Seierstad is able to show us the stories of both men and women. With a war correspondent's background, she is able to fill in the historical perspective while still maintaining an unprecedented level of intimacy in this tale. This is truly a remarkable book, well written and compelling. Its value is sure to stand the test of time.

A fascinating look at Afghanistan.......2007-08-23

The Bookseller of Kabul is a fine book which illuminates a culture and country with both honesty and understanding. It is written like a novel, yet the reader is convinced of the authenticity of the narrative; and Seierstad is clear when she expresses her own opinions. It is not difficult to share her views of the treatment of women in the Afghan household where she herself is hospitably and generously treated. The lack of opportunity to escape the stifling and destructive prison of womanhood in Afghanistan is tragic. She also examines the power of the authoritarian head of the family who denies his own children an education or freedom to make some choices of their own.

It is evident that the thoughtless acceptance of traditional beliefs of the role of women or the rights of the "man of the house" cannot be easily changed or even modified. I closed the book with a feeling of sadness and hopelessness, but with admiration for Asne Seierstad's skill and sensibilities.

Bookseller is the Best.......2007-07-19

A gripping story and personal insight into a wealthy Kabul family. I could hardly put it down and learned a lot about modern Afghanistan life.

The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Babur and the Culture of Empire in Central Asia, Afghanistan and India (1483-1530) (Brill's Inner Asian Library)

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The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Babur and the Culture of Empire in Central Asia, Afghanistan and India (1483-1530) (Brill's Inner Asian Library)
Stephen Frederic Dale
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9004137076

Book Description

This the first critical biography of Zahîr al-Dîn Muhammad Bâbur, the founder of one of the great premodern Islamic empires, the Timurid-Mughul empire of India. It contains an original evaluation of his life and writings as well as fresh insights into both the nature of empire building and the character of the Timurid-Mughul state.

Based upon recently published critical editions of Bâbur's autobiography and poetry, the book examines Bâbur's life from the time he inherited his father's authority in the Ferghanah valley, east of Samarqand, in 1494, until his death in Agra, India in 1530. The book is written in an alternating series of thematic and narrative chapters. The thematic or analytical chapters examine his major writings, discuss his cultural personality and his reaction to Indian culture, while the narrative chapters relate the story of his life while critically commenting on his autobiographical intent.

Book Description

Peter Dale Scott's brilliantly researched tour de force illuminates the underlying forces that drive U.S. global policy from Vietnam to Colombia and now to Afghanistan and Iraq. He brings to light the intertwined patterns of drugs, oil politics, and intel

Customer Reviews:

Shocking material in a chewy read.......2006-10-15

A hard-to-follow structure and a dry, academic writing style make this powerful and much-needed book less accessible than it should be.

Spurred in part by the near-unanimous 5-star acclaim among the Amazon reviewers, I bought this book. I was a bit disappointed. Not because of the content: Scott's authority comes through strongly as a concerned, longtime, and deep observer of the deliberately hidden dimension of U.S. foreign policy operating in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina. Writing since the time of the Vietnam War, he has dug and dug into these things, and we are the beneficiaries of his spadework.

My issue is more with the structure and presentation of the book. As other reviewers have noted, the book is in fact mostly a reprinting of some of Scott's earlier writings, with some new, brief introductions. This means the book is not really unified, but more a collection of essays with some overlap and repetition which I found sometimes confusing. Counterintuitively, it moves backward in time, starting with a discussion of Afghanistan in 2002 and progressing to Colombia in 2001 and Indochina from 1950 to 1970. The book is not a single narrative or a single argument, and its unity suffers for this.

Scott delivers what should be the most sensational pieces of information--such as that presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all had strikingly intimate ties to organized-crime figures--in a dry, unemphatic way that makes for a strangely subdued, scholarly tone (with copious end-notes), and thus a less engaging read than it should be.

Also: if you are not thoroughly familiar with things like the progression of political and military events in Indochina leading up to the Vietnam War, you will find the book heavy going, since Scott assumes this knowledge on the part of the reader.

All of that being said, this book is very important, and Scott has done a huge service to us all in writing it. In the nature of things, he can't create a seamless narrative of American skulduggery in its wars since World War Two, since this has been kept secret. But he presents a host of suggestive and damning evidence of systematic, covert wrongdoing by American intelligence and military operatives working opportunistically with drug traffickers and organized-crime figures, often without the knowledge of the administration they are ostensibly serving. These people have taken the adage "the ends justify the means" to the extreme--although what the desired "ends" actually might be is often far from clear.

So: five stars for content and its importance; three stars for presentation. We need more Peter Dale Scotts--a lot more of them. His ideas need to be popularized, but it seems that Scott himself is not the guy to do that.

Superb study of US state's use of mercenary drug-runners.......2005-03-21

This is an outstanding and revelatory book, a brilliant account of a drug-trafficking empire. He shows how US protection for their drug-runner allies has led to the huge increase in drug trafficking in the last 50 years.

The US strategy of opposing national self-determination involves alliances with drug-traffickers like the Sicilian Mafia, the Triads in South-East Asia, the Contras in Nicaragua, the Kosovo Liberation Army in Europe, the death squads in Colombia and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. As President Johnson's Secretary of State Dean Rusk said, the USA "should employ whatever means ... arms here, opium there."

From the 1870s to the 1960s, the British rulers of Malaya farmed the opium franchise to the Triads. The US state first copied this strategy in 1949, when it armed the defeated Kuomintang's drug networks in Burma and Laos, after the victorious Chinese revolution began to eliminate Chinese opium, then the source of 85% of the world's heroin.

The US state encouraged its allies to enrich themselves through drugs, while it blamed the communist enemy for the evils that its allies were committing. From 1949 until at least 1964, the US told the UN Narcotics Commission that China was responsible for drug imports into the USA. In fact, the drugs were trafficked from Burma and Thailand, under the protection of the Kuomintang troops backed by the CIA. The Hong Kong authorities stated that they "were not aware of a traffic in narcotics from the mainland of China through Hong Kong" but "quantities of narcotics reached Hong Kong via Thailand."

The US state assaulted the whole region of South East Asia between 1950 and 1975, just as it is attacking the Middle East today. An earlier effort at regime change in Laos in 1959-60 was a disaster, putting drug traffickers in power. Opium production soared during the years of US intervention, the 1950s and 1960s, and plummeted in 1975 after the Vietnamese people kicked US forces out of the region.

US military interventions lead to bigger drug flows into the USA. After the US intervention in Afghanistan in 1979, the Afghani-produced proportion of heroin consumed in the USA went from zero in 1979 to 52% in 1984.

Later, the Taliban government cut opium production from 3,656 tons in 2000 (90% of Europe's heroin supply) to 74 tons in 2001 (US State Department figures), wiping out 70% of the world's illicit opium production. US forces, in alliance with a drug trafficking network, the Northern Alliance, defeated Al Qa'ida, another drug trafficking network. The US funded the Northern Alliance warlord and terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, making him the world's biggest heroin trafficker.

Under US occupation, Afghan opium production has risen from 3,700 tons in 2002, to 3,400 tons in 2003, to 4,200 tons last year. The Financial Times wrote, "The U.S. and UN have ignored repeated calls by the international antidrugs community to address the increasing menace of Afghanistan's opium cultivation." It is now the world's leading producer of illicit drugs, producing 90% of the heroin sold in Britain and Europe. President Karzai of Afghanistan has made Rashid Dostum, a warlord, drug runner and terrorist, his military chief of staff.

According to the Colombian government, the antigovernment guerrillas of FARC (the supposed target of the `war on drugs') had 2.5% of Colombia's cocaine trade; the government's allies, the paramilitary death squads, had 40%. Drug production in Colombia and its drug imports to the USA have now doubled to a new record.

Parapolitics metastasize into deep politics.......2005-03-01

Peter Dale Scott illustrates clearly that one of the main aims of the US foreign policy is control of oil, because the US is heavily dependent on foreign oil and oil markets.

The Vietnam war was based on the Southeast Asia domino theory, which raised concerns about the Indonesian oil assets. The war was all about preventing communist regimes from taking control of oil reserves.
Other examples are Iraq, Afghanistan and Unocal's oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea, Colombia and Occidental Petroleum's oil fields or Kossovo and the Balkan oil pipeline.

In order to control oil resources the US backes armies and governments that are heavily involved in drug trafficking. The end justifies all means.
This kind of powerplay is exercised by covert means (parapolitics). Unfortunately, those policies tend to metastasize into deep politics. As the author states: 'they become an interplay of unacknowledged forces on which the original parapolitical agent no longer has control'.
The result is that the US and the world are inundated with drugs. One cannot find one dollar note without drug traces.

This book is partly a rewriting of an older book of the author 'The War Conspiracy'.
Although it is more confusing and lesser deep digging than his Magnum Opus 'Deep Politics', it is a disturbing and impressive report.
Not to be missed.

Essential reading.......2003-07-16

Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina is an eye-opening journey into the deep politics of U.S. intervention in developing and third-world nations. Scott illuminates the connection between American business interests and American foreign policy with a factual depth that leaves little room for doubt. Scott also documents the CIA involvement--often via drug proxies--in furthering covert American interests. The details and references contained within the text add immeasurably to what is already an incredibly valuable and insightful history. This book is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the motivation behind American foreign policy and the military conflicts that have arisen out of American business interests on foreign soil.

The Truth that Hurts.......2003-07-16

Like veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, whom McCarthyites dubbed "prematurely anti-Fascist" for fighting against Franco during the Spanish Civil War, Peter Dale Scott has long been ahead of the pack on the parapolitical underpinnings of US foreign policy. Those desiring to catch up - and thereby plug the mega-gap between Bush II rhetoric and reality - will be wise to start by reading Scott's latest book, "Drugs, Oil and War." Though he focusses on Indochina, Colombia and Afghanistan, lessons Washington learned there - and forgot - are being retaught today in Iraq.

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Afghanistan (Cultures of the World)
Sharifah Enayat Ali
Manufacturer: Benchmark Books (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0761420649

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Couldn't put it down!
A Millions Little Pieces, Jr.
Myth, identity, realities . . .
Absolutely amazing!
RAWA was main factor in fame of Saria Shah's documentry

Storyteller's Daughter
Saira Shah
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375415319
Release Date: 2003-09-16

Book Description

The vivid, often startling memoir of a young woman shaped by two dramatically disparate worlds. Saira Shah is the English-born daughter of an Afghan aristocrat, inspired by his dazzling stories to rediscover the now lost life their forebears presided over for nine hundred years within sight of the minarets and lush gardens of Kabul and the snow-topped mountains of the Hindu Kush. Part sophisticated, sensitive Western liberal, part fearless, passionate Afghan, falling in love with her ancestral myth–chasing Afghanistan–Shah becomes, at twenty-one, a correspondent at the front of the war between the Soviets and the Afghan resistance. Then, imprisoning herself in a burqa, she risks her life to film Beneath the Veil, her acclaimed record of the devastation of women’s lives by the Taliban. Discovering her extended family, discovering a world of intense family ritual, of community, of male primacy, of arranged marriages, and finding at last the now war-ravaged family seat, she discovers as well what she wants and what she rejects of her extraordinary heritage.

Customer Reviews:

Couldn't put it down!.......2006-11-19

An absolutely delicious story! Afghanistan's lore and legend come to life in the author's own accounts of her bold adventures as a woman on the fronts of danger in Afghanistan. It being true made it all the more fun. I really could not put this book down; it is a fascinating tale that includes intrigue, suspense, and a uniquely satire sense of humor sprinkled throughout. Saira Shah transports the reader to a foreign land, a foreign way of life, a foreign way of thought. Yet, the tales echo familiar as she gives a spectacular presentation of the clash between mystical historical lore, modern day realities, and the blend of these two realms on humanity's culture, mind, and heart.

A Millions Little Pieces, Jr........2006-07-25

I am currently in Kabul, and have read almost every English-language book on Afghanistan that is popularly available. I have also lived in Kabul and traveled to Feyzbad, Kandahar,Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kunduz and along the Uzbek Border. I speak mediocre Dari. Among the books that I enjoyed were those by Saira Shah's grandmother (try "My Khyber Life") and her father, Idris Shah. The same cannot be said for Saira Shah's. Shah' work, however. Part of my complaint was that the book isn't about anything much - its just a list of what she claims were her experiences in and near Afghanistan. I would compare them to a series of interesting letters detailing what I did on my afghan vacation. What they don't provide is insight into what was happening in Afghanistan or Peshawar, why, or what is going on now, or much cultural or historical information.

My other, more serious complaint, is that I think most of the book is not true, and that Ms. Shah either made it up entirely, seriously exaggerated or "borrowed" the story from someone else's experience. The issue is not that the book was not entertaining, because it was, but that I strongly suspect that it is entertaining only because she changed (or created) the facts to make it so.

Too much of what she claims were her experiences in Afghanistan are general stories one hears here (such as the time she met a Mullah who spoke Arabic while claiming to be an Arab man. She says that he started faking speaking Arabic, and she pretended to understand him, so he declared them Arabs to keep his lie of Arabic proficiency and prestige that went with it. This story of two language frauds is heard in many incarnations. I even heard one in a German-language book I read 10 years ago in Austria. Also, some mountain mullahs do speak some Arabic. They may not be fluent, but they know a little bit and would spot someone who didn't, the same way you would if the only Spanish you knew was "what is your name?" and when you asked someone who claimed to be a Spaniard they didn't understand. She might have also been expected to talk to her companions and pray in Arabic - it would seem strange if she did neither, and if there is any Arabic people know here, its prayers).

Another example of an improbable event is when she tells of a Buzgashi game during which the players rode their horses into the tent holding "the Great and the Good" and collapsed the tent on them. I'm guessing all of the spectators weren't the "Great and the Good," but it makes a better story if they were. Also, although Buzgashi is compared to polo, but it is really a lot more violent. All of the horses are stallions, and taught to kick and bite each other. The only rule for the players is no eye gouging. The game set-up is sort of like a race, as the player holding the goat as to ride around certain points before he can make a goal, and the others ride alongside trying to stop him. I play horse polo and have watched Buzgashi, and although a horse might run away, the whole group of players could avoid running into a spectator's tent (I've also never seen a tent for spectators, but maybe they really had that in Pakistan). If they were out of control, horses by instinct would head for open space or for home, not into an unknown tent full of people. If by some fluke a horse or horses did run into the tent, it would not have been funny. People would have been hurt, and probably killed - the same goes for the horses. If the horses just took out the tent supports, they still would have tripped, fallen and seriously injured themselves and their riders.

Other stories just don't make sense - Dari is an older version of Farsi, it's true, but it''s not so ancient that people say "entomb thyself' instead of "take cover" as Ms Shah claims Afghans do. If Ms Shah met an Afghan who wanted her to take cover he would say "Hide!" "Get Down!" or "Cover!" He would only tell her to entomb herself if he wanted to her bury herself. It makes a quaint story about ancient languages and confusions cased by language, but it isn't true (I asked one of guards who work her at my office in Kabul, and who was previously a soldier for15 years and he agreed). By Ms. Shah's own admission her Dari wasn't so great, which makes me question if she would have understood an archaic command such as "entomb thyself," even if someone had spoken it. I also doubt that Ms.Shah spent so much time in men's clothes without anyone noticing - if she didn't have a beard, or stubble, or know how to pray with the men, they would eventually notice. From a distance I'm sure she blended in, and it would work short-term, but if she kept up for too long her secret would be out. I'm sure she did travel in men's gear, but I'm also sure it wasn't for as long as she implied, or as successfully. I used to "cross dress" in Saudi and it took abut 20 minutes before the strangers around me in the junk souk were certain I wasn't a man. There are may other such instances I doubt Ms. Shah truthfulness and stories that are too good to be true. (I was so angry when I was reading the book that I kept a list), but in the interest of a somewhat shorter review I'll stop at those examples. More generally, I find it unlikely that Ms. Shah's experience always fit so neatly into a "story,"or that her stock character friends (the rebellious Afghan girl who wants to be free, the prescient professor who sees the dangers ahead but is ignored by leaders etc.) always had the "inside scoop" and told it to her in short sound bites capturing the entire situation, or that she so frequently found herself in a situation so perfectly primed for maximum effect.

The only part of the book that is not like this is near the end, when Ms. Shah brings a television crew to film two girls (she included them in an earlier news piece after their mother was raped and killed in front of them, and the resulting interest in their fate from paying news agencies promoted a return trip to try and help them and tape said efforts for a TV channel), by providing schooling for them, only to find them afraid to leave home and their father reluctant to let them go. This was messy, morally compromising and a without a real resolution, which makes me think it is the most true section of the book. The rest is neat, pat, a little funny sometimes tragic, and, in my opinion, almost always "enhanced," if not completely fabricated.

In short read one of the many, many good books out there by the many, many truthful writer based in fact. They might not be quite so perfect and their writers not quite so in the middle of thing, but they are also more likely to be true, and you will therefore get more out of them.

Myth, identity, realities . . ........2006-07-03

Part memoir, part reportage, this beautifully written book is also an inquiry into the nature of myth, identity, and the limits of human endurance. Born in England and raised on the memories of her Afghan father's homeland, the author journeys as a young journalist to Afghanistan during the Soviet Occupation in the 1980s, traveling with the mujahidin rebels, who with massive infusions of weapons from the CIA eventually drive out the Russians and then quickly succumb again to an equally destructive civil war and the inevitable tyranny of the Taliban. A witness to these struggles and the widespread human misery they caused, Shah is present again in 2002 as the Americans retaliate in response to the 9/11 attacks.

Through it all, she ponders her deep identification with the people of this war-torn land, fired by the cultural myths that have sustained them through millenia of invasions, occupations, and civil strife, where fierce tribal allegiances and a fatalistic fearlessness make death, brutality, and suffering a common experience. Over a period of 15 years, her belief in the myths is tested, and she begins to fully comprehend not only the immensity of the human cost of the war but the extreme difficulty of making a difference for those of its casualties most in need of help.

Writing with a skilled reporter's powers of acute observation and an ability to convey images of people, places, and events in vivid and compelling prose, Shah interweaves stories, Afghan poems and sayings, and even humor, with accounts of her work as a journalist behind the lines. Readers unfamiliar with the last 50 years of Afghan history may be disoriented as Shah tells her own story, skipping as it does from one point in time to another. But read along with books like Christina Lamb's "The Sewing Circles of Herat" and Jason Eliot's "An Unexpected Light," she provides insights into her subject that are revealing, moving, and often riveting. Definitely recommended.

Absolutely amazing!.......2005-11-18

This book is one of the best books I have read. It was touching and made me realise what an amazing life Saira Shah has led. After I closed the book, I could not pick up annother book for a couple of days - I did not want to spoil the feeling it had left me with. This book will move you, make you think and touch you.
I loved it!

RAWA was main factor in fame of Saria Shah's documentry.......2005-05-09

Some footages of atrocities of taliban that were included in the documentry of Saira shah were filmed by members of RAWA which made the film a real success and resulted in its acceptance all over the world. I think Saira should give full credit to RAWA members for their courage and great work. Zarmeenas public execution, which was starting clip in the film, was secretely filmed by a number of RAWA members. Without that clip the film could not draw much attention.

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This book will change the way you look at your life.
An extraordinary story
A deeply, moving story from a country of war
Great and fascinating read!
This is a book that everyone should read!!!

The Other Side of the Sky: A Memoir
Farah Ahmedi , and Tamim Ansary
Manufacturer: Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 141691837X

Book Description

Farah Ahmedi's "poignant tale of survival" (Chicago Tribune) chronicles her journey from war to peace. Equal parts tragedy and hope, determination and daring, Ahmedi's memoir delivers a remarkably vivid portrait of her girlhood in Kabul, where the sound of gunfire and the sight of falling bombs shaped her life and stole her family. She herself narrowly escapes death when she steps on a land mine. Eventually the war forces her to flee, first over the mountains to refugee camps across the border, and finally to America. Ahmedi proves that even in the direst circumstances, not only can the human heart endure, it can thrive. The Other Side of the Sky is "a remarkable journey" (Chicago Sun-Times), and Farah Ahmedi inspires us all.

Customer Reviews:

This book will change the way you look at your life........2007-09-15

I am reading this book with my class at school. I love it! I look forward to it everyday. This is a story that every American needs to hear because it is living proof of how much we have been given. When you realize that many people in the world have had to deal with the things that Farah did, the everyday dramas in your life are put into a totally new perspective. This book is real. It happened to real people, it teaches real lessons, and that is why it leaves any hollow fiction or fantasy behind.

An extraordinary story.......2007-05-16

When seven-year-old Farah Ahmedi stepped on a landmine in her native Afghanistan, she thought her life was over. The hospital in her war-torn city only tried to keep her alive until German doctors made their regular monthly visit, airlifting the most crucial cases to heal in their own country.

Away from her family and culture, Farah fell apart.

Then, as she began to heal, she made friends with a German woman, who informally adopted Farah like one of her own. Gradually, Farah began to learn the language and enjoy the peaceful, beautiful country -- making it just as shocking when she was returned to her family two years later.

Suddenly, nothing Farah's family or country can offer her seems good enough. The little girl had become used to a better life, and she was determined to live it again.

That wish kept her determination driven over the next few years, when war ravaged her family and her home. Left with nothing but a crippled daughter, Farah's mother hovered on the brink of madness and wanted to give up. But Farah, who had had a peek of what life could be, believed the two were destined to live in America through a special program for Afghan widows and orphans.

After numerous obstacles - including 9/11 - the two finally get their wish. But their struggle is far from over, as they find themselves in the midst of a culture clash with the general American public. Farah's mother is still battling mental demons, and Farah herself not only has to learn to speak and read English, but read altogether, as her Afghan education had fallen apart during wartime.

Above all, Farah learns, there is always a higher power out there, willing to help you during your most desperate times, sending relief in the form of a person destined to cross your life's path.

This simply told story is a powerful testament to the atrocities that can be endured without breaking. Farah Ahmedi is one extraordinary teenager, destined to do great things.

A deeply, moving story from a country of war.......2007-04-09

I got Farad's audio book because we have been working in relief and development in Afganistan since 1984. It is a well narrated book, an uplifting account the suffering of a child and of people who come into our lives and believe in us, love us and walk with us through the difficulties of life in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in America.

Farad, a young, Hazara girl, has lived an unbelievable life before reaching the age of 15. Her story is a first hand picture of the devastation of a beautiful country destroyed by war and ethnic conflict. She and her family were caught in the middle. She stepped on a landmine as she was going to school in Kabul. She was in the second grade and things went downhill from there.

This is a story of suffering and pain but finding strength to respond when it seemed impossible. This is a story of faith and people practically living out their faith. It is the story of a young girl who has a dream.

Great and fascinating read!.......2007-01-15

This book is great reading for teeens through adults. It is an easy read - can be read in 1-2 days. The story is gripping and suspenseful and really gives one an understanding of life in turbulent Afghanistan and the difficulty refugees encountered to make their way out. My husband and I read the book and enjoyed it as did my daughters, ages 19 and 17.

This is a book that everyone should read!!!.......2007-01-04

I personally know the girl who wrote this book. She is an amazing person and has so many stories to tell. She was given the opportunity to share her story because she has gone experienced so many things. This really is a must read for everyone. For such a young person, she has gone through more than most will go through before they are middle aged and yet, she still thrives and lives for each day doing the best she can at everything she does. Enough said...buy this book!

Culture and Customs of Afghanistan (Culture and Customs of Asia)

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Culture and Customs of Afghanistan (Culture and Customs of Asia)
Hafizullah Emadi
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313330891

Book Description

Afghanistan has been at the crossroads of many cultures and civilizations, occupying a unique place in the cultural geography of Central Asia. Invading tribes and armies passed through ancient Afghanistan and left their imprint on the culture, customs, and way of life there. In recent history, Afghanistan has been the focus of international attention since the Soviet invasion and occupation of 1979 to 1989, the brutal civil war that ensued, and the subsequent U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban regime. As the country struggles to stabilize and rebuild, this volume is the first to reveal the people and ways of life that have been in flux for so long. Emadi brings an insider's knowledge and authority to the accessible narrative. Students and general readers will find a clear explanation of the land, people, economy, social stratification, and history as context for the chapters that follow. In the chapter on Religion and Religious Thought, the predominant Islamic religion is largely intertwined with political events that have brought Afghanistan such attention. The lesser-known literature and the arts are brought to light next. A strong Architecture, Housing, and Settlements chapter highlights many styles unfamiliar to most Westerners. Coverage of Afghan cooking and cuisine brings a more intimate understanding of the culture. The chapter on Family, Women, and Gender will draw readers in with its survey of how the family works, what is expected of women, and what courtship, marriage, childrearing, and education are like today. A standout of the Festivals and Leisure Activities chapter is the vivid rendering of the sport called Buzkashi, where men on horseback vie to move an animal carcass across a field to a goal. A final chapter on Lifestyles, Media, and Education describes the urban vs. rural lifestyles, the state of communications, and the prospects for schooling post Taliban. A country map, glossary, resource guide, and photos complement the text.

Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

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Into The Land of Bones
A relevant must read
Topical and Relevant
Bactria and the devourer dogs.
Deja vu All Over Again

Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan (Hellenistic Culture and Society)
Frank L. Holt
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520249933

Book Description

What George W. Bush called the "first war of the twenty-first century" actually began more than 2,300 years ago when Alexander the Great led his army into what is now a sprawling ruin in northern Afghanistan. Accounts of Alexander's invasion of ancient Bactria read eerily like news from our own day. In this vivid, meticulously researched, and elegantly narrated book, Frank L. Holt follows Alexander's historical, archaeological, and numismatic legacy back and forth between ancient Bactria and modern Afghanistan. Recounting the plight of the most powerful leader of the time as he led the most sophisticated army of its day into the treacherous world of tribal warlords, Holt describes those grueling campaigns and the impact they had on Alexander, his generals, their troops, and the world. Into the Land of Bones also examines the conflict from the point of view of the local warlords who pushed the invading Greeks to the limits of their endurance--and sometimes beyond, into mania and mutiny. The lively narrative situates the current war in Afghanistan in a broader historical perspective.
Holt explains how the three modern superpowers that have invaded Afghanistan--Britain in the nineteenth century, the Soviets in the twentieth, and the United States in the twenty-first--are continuing the struggle that Alexander began centuries ago. That this legacy continues to play itself out today is a testament to the timeliness of Holt's fascinating and original account.

Customer Reviews:

Into The Land of Bones.......2007-08-23

A really excellent book. It is a refreshingly short, but very
inclusive insight into the divisive nature of Afghanistan's
culture and society which has, despite the many failed.
conquests of its people from Alexander's times to ours, remained
largely unchanged. It is presented in very easily understood
language for the average reader, though I think it would provide
a valuable digest of its subject for the more academic reader.
I have found it very enlightening in that it has deepened my
belief of why our own military involvement, because of its failure
to consider the lessons of Afghanistan's historical resistence to
change, is doomed---at least for now.

A relevant must read.......2007-07-08

I actually had the pleasure of listening to him talk about this book in one of my classes. He is a great person and an even better historian. This is an unique book that studies Alexander the Great's campaign in the area of present-day Afghanistan and compares it to what Britian and the US later did in that area. Holt explains the various battles and campaigns in that area and how it affected Alexander, his troops, and the world. This is a great book and highly recommend it!

I do not agree with one of the reviewers who believed that it was ridiculous to compare George W. Bush campaign in Iraq/Afghanistan to Alexander the Great's campaigns. It is completely legitimate and that is what history is for! We analyze history that way we can learn from it. From this book it is obvious we as a world have not learned the lessons that Alexander the Great learned and showed us in his campaigns. This is a great book with great, useful comparisons. I do not believe Mr. Holt was overreaching in his analysis.

Topical and Relevant.......2007-06-09

I think this book's greatest strength (and weakness) is its constant comparison of Alexander's invasion of Afghanistan and later occupations by the British, the Russians, and the Americans. For today's audience, there are many references to culturally well-known people and events such as when he compares Roxanne, Alexander's Bactrian bride, with Sharbat Gula, an Afghani girl made famous on the cover of National Geographic in one of that magazine's most famous photos and later revisited by the magazine.

The weakness of this lies in the fact that many of the current references will quickly become dated, and future readers won't identify with his comparisons nearly as well.

It was a well-written, fast-paced look at one small part of Alexander's conquests. I'm glad I read it and would recommend it to others. My one hesitation is that he follows a book written in detail on not only the events, but the motives and feelings of the individuals, with an appendix on his sources which states that there is so little factual data remaining about Alexander's reign -- and most of that contradictory -- that it raises the question of how reliable his conclusions are. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, and will undoubtedly reread it.

Bactria and the devourer dogs........2006-09-08

This is the first book that I have read written by Mr. Holt,and I must say it is extremely informative.
By reading this book you will understand why Afghanistan was never conquered and I think it will never be.
So many have tried from Alexander the Great, the British and the Soviets.All lost including Alexander.He took a very smooth way out from this country with harsh terrain and warlods who are only faithful to their own shadows.
Into the land of bones will explain why so many have died and yet never conquered Bactria.
The distruction of all the cultural and archeological assetts that Afghanistan has,destroyed by wars, warlords and their infinite distructions of archeological sights.Millions of coins from all periods of that rich and historic area are in the markets sold through bazaars in Pakistan and India. What a disgrace.
Did you know that there has been a fantastic discovery maybe the only one ever. In Afghanistan the archeologists discovered a ball used in catapults, which they are almost sure that is the only item ever found from Alexander's war paraphernelia.
I strongly suggest you read this book to understand what the American soldiers are going against.Terrains,warlords,harsh weather,they are real heroes.
Devourer of humans are what the Bactrians used to do.Put the dead bodies out on the ground and let wild dogs devour them.Recycling?
That gives you an idea of what Afghanistan is all about.

Deja vu All Over Again.......2006-07-14

I just finished a course in Alexander with the legendary Peter Green who highly recommended this book. The ratings so far are not beginning to do it justice. The analogies that Holt sees with Britain, Russian and the USA presently beg to be drawn. According to Tarn and others of the so-called "good Alexander" persuasion, Bactria was "world brotherhood achieved" (just like today right?) Even Tarn had to admit, though, that Alexander in Bactria was at his worst in terms of massacres and gratuitous violence. According to Peter Green, "In Bactria, Alexander came the closest to total calamity in his career." Looking at Alexander in Bactria, Holt spells out a sure "recipe for ruin" saying that any foreign agressors typically estimate the time and resources they think they need, then double that estimate, then repeat this formula as needed. Holt points out what Alexander, Britain, France and now the ever history-conscious USA all learn by invading Bactria/Afgan that A. warfare there is seasonal and all gains will be wiped out by Spring. B. Any potential victor must wipe out every single warlord. C. Crossborder conflicts will occur constantly. D. The line between massacre and conciliation will disappear. E. Allies and enemies will become indistinguishable. Holt shows how Alexander paved the way shifting roles from killer to diplomat to ally to even a subordinate then back to a superior. Alexander tried to marry the daughter of a local Bactrian/Afgan warlord--other than that everything else he tried has been tried repeatedly since. Holt shows how Bactria/Afgan never had national unity forever collapsing into tribal enclaves that always fight each other. Only 12% of the land is arable and only poppies will grow on that, which the latest brilliant Bush initiative is attempting to cut off cold turkey--"we will starve" the natives say on TV soundbites, but what do they know. The Afgans currently speak 30 different languages (even more in Alexander's day) and all of these languages are obscure. Cities always were and still are peripheral rather than central and most are near the frontiers--they are more like the outside than the inside of the land. Localism is endemic and destructive. The natives are born and bred to mountain warfare. Alexander had to get huge reinforcements there (22k)and he left an enormous garrison force there that made zero difference. The Brits in the 19th century and the Soviets in the 1980's also had to pull out with huge losses. So when you watch the next episode of endemic violence there on the nightly news and get the premonition, this is unwinnable, you might want to read Holt's timely and important book.

Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition) (Symbol and Culture)

Average customer rating:

Powerful and Vivid

Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition) (Symbol and Culture)
G. Whitney Azoy
Manufacturer: Waveland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1577662385

Book Description

Much has happened since this book first appeared, almost all of it horrific for Afghanistan. The past quarter century devastated this country more than any other on earth. No country in all history has proven more resilient. No people alive today are more worthy of admiration, respect, and support. Now available from Waveland Press as an updated Second Edition, Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan is not only the first full-scale anthropological examination of a single sport, but also a beautifully written case study about a place and a people that have been largely ignored in the social science literature. Buzkashi, perhaps the wildest game in the world and a vivid feature of Afghan life, entails the aggressive struggle of hundreds of horsemen over a mutilated calf carcass. Shortly after the first appearance of Azoy's book, the world press came to use the actual play of buzkashi in print as a metaphor for Afghan politics. Azoy's incisive analysis of Afghan political dynamics demonstrates how play and politics, ordinarily perceived as separate activities, can interpenetrate one another. Sadly but truly, buzkashi continues to prove itself to be an apt metaphor for ongoing Afghan political control and chaos. The Waveland edition includes two new chapters: "For Real (1978 2002)," which describes buzkashi as played over the past twenty years in new places by new people, and a chapter serving as a personal tribute to the author's friend and field informant.

Customer Reviews:

Powerful and Vivid.......2005-12-25

Azoy describes a fascinating relationship between Afghanistan's "national sport" and its political evolution. Witty and genuine, his firsthand accounts of traditional Afghan notions of power, status and honor give the book a unique flavour. Buzkashi is short, but informative. Easy to read and enjoy, it made me want to ride like the wind, dead goat in hand, to victory and glory!

Average customer rating:

Travel writing as it should be
Humorous But Not Enlightening
hilarious, but typical writing through a colonial prism
Not his best work
The Himalayan Foothills/Bay of Bengal Express

Slowly Down the Ganges
Eric Newby
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0864426313

Amazon.com

Eric Newby has never been bedeviled by practicality. Hence this 1,200-mile journey down the Ganges River, which the author undertook in 1963 in the company of his wife and an ever-changing crew of Indian retainers. What moved him to take the trip? Partly it was the memory of his military service in India more than two decades before. And as he confesses, Newby has a lifelong and perhaps congenital love of rivers: "I like exploring them. I like the way in which they grow deeper and wider and dirtier but always, however dirty they become, managing to retain some of the beauty with which they were born." Few rivers grow quite as dirty as the Ganges, which also goes by such nicknames as Atula ("Peerless"), Savitri ("Stimulator"), and Bhinna-brahmanda-darpini ("Taking pride in the broken egg of Brahma"). And few accounts of this mighty waterway could possibly be as acute and hilarious as Slowly down the Ganges, which Newby first published in 1966.

As always, the author finds human comedy everywhere he looks. Take his initial departure from beneath the Balawali Bridge, where a highly emotional crowd has gathered to see him off:

Two hundred yards below the bridge and some twelve hundred miles from the Bay of Bengal the boat grounded in sixteen inches of water.... I looked upstream to the bridge but all those who had been waving and weeping had studiously turned their backs. The boatmen uttered despairing cries for assistance but the men at the bridge bent to their tasks with unwonted diligence. As far as they were concerned we had passed out of their lives. We might never have existed.

And so it goes, even as Newby and his crew run aground 63 times in the first six days, or switch doggedly from boat to train to bullock cart and back to boat again. His patience in the face of continuous disaster is superbly entertaining, as are his attempts to mollify his increasingly impatient wife, Wanda. Still, his gift for the farcical slow burn never keeps him from relishing the terrain, or from recording it in lyrical yet laconic prose: "At about six the sky to the east became faintly red; then it began to flame and the moon was extinguished; clouds of unidentifiable birds flew high overhead; a jackal skulked along the far shore and, knowing itself watched, went up the bank and into the trees; mist rose from the wet grass on the islands on which the shisham trees stood, wrapped like precious objects in their bandages of dead grass." Slowly down the Ganges is packed with such time-lapse portraiture, along with plenty of casual wisdom about history, humanity, and (last but not least) conjugal life. It's one of those rare voyages we only wish were much, much slower. --James Marcus

Book Description

On his forty-fourth birthday Eric Newby, a self-confessed river lover, sets out on a 1200-mile journey down the Ganges River from Hardwar to the Bay of Bengal, accompanied by his wife Wanda. Things do not start smoothly as they run aground 63 times in the first six days, but gradually India's holiest river, The Pure, The Eternal, The Creator of Happiness, lives up to its many names and captures them in its spell.

Traveling in a variety of boats, most of them unsuitable, as well as by bus and bullock cart, the Newbys become intimately acquainted with the river's shifting moods and colorful history. Slowly Down the Ganges brims over with engaging characters and entertaining anecdotes, recounted in Newby's inimitable style. Best of all, he brilliantly captures the sights and sounds, the frustrations and rewards, the sheer enchantment of travel in India.

Customer Reviews:

Travel writing as it should be.......2007-03-16

This frequently hilarious account of the author's boat trip down the Ganges River has it all: bureaucracy, a prickly spousal travelling companion, bizarre Hindu cultists, and dry streambeds loaded with basketball-sized rocks. Oh yes, there is also the heartland of classical India's Hindu culture unrolling along the shore, with the author's slightly quaint but extremely well-informed interest in the military history of the Raj (as well as reminiscences of his own exploits there years before) thrown in for good measure and some trips down side streets. Newby is one of the great travel writers, I prefer him to Theroux or Chatwin, he is down-to-eart, funny, and endlessly game.

Humorous But Not Enlightening.......2006-08-25

I read this book after I'd spent a month in India and I found it LOL funny. There's no great insights here, no V.S. Naipual style reflection or analysis, it's just a tale of two Colonial-era Brits determined to travel the 1,200 mile length of the Ganges by boat in 1963/64. But if you're a westerner who's ever spent an extended period of time trying to get around inside of northern India, I suspect you'll find this book as amusing as I did. So in that sense it captures some of spirit of the place, though perhaps it's only amusing if you've experienced first-hand the chaos that is India. It's probably not a good choice if you're looking for a traveler's introduction to "modern" India.

hilarious, but typical writing through a colonial prism.......2005-09-14

During the 1950s and 1960s there were several travel books written on India, whose tone were in general (many cases rightfully so) caustic. While Naipauls 'Area of Darkness' had the pain and disgust of seeing his country of origin in shambles, and Joseph Campbells 'Brahman and Baksheesh' had the disappointment of his lack of success in seeing theory in practice , one wonders about motives of Eric Newby in writing this book. Imagine the irony of a former member of a plundering army coming back, enjoying the hospitality of the same region, lamenting about how bad everything is. Throughout the book, he almost has nothing good to say about the culture, religion, beliefs or the traditions that make Ganges sacred to a billion people . The only people he warms up to are those of his own religion, and other natives who praise the Raj (perhaps he misses the Indian sense of hospitality to visitors , to make them feel at home, even if they dont actually mean it).
But the book is hilarious where it doesnt get condescending, probably belongs to a bygone colonial era, where trashing heathen beliefs would get you a book deal. I give it 3 stars for the pure spirit of adventure involved in the travel and for his devoted wife who puts up with lot of chaos in a foreign land.

Not his best work.......2004-05-25

I am a long-time fan of Eric Newby since stumbling upon his 1956 book, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. I actually fell off the couch laughing. In addition to the adventures of the trip, Newby offers an inside look at Afghani geography, history and culture in a very readable form. Gently Down the Ganges, by comparison, I found monotonous and dreary, almost whiny. I strongly recommend Newby for his self-deprecating, dry "British Traveler" wit but cannot recommend Gently Down the Ganges as the best of Newby.

The Himalayan Foothills/Bay of Bengal Express.......2003-04-26

Unlike his grounded colleague, the river traveller can indulge his bent for distraction only so far. His route is more or less fixed; certainly his destination is final. And so it is to Eric Newby's credit for eliciting from this journey 300 pages worth of erudite and witty observances, for it is essentially a procession of waterborne shuttles, one ghat to the next, punctuated only by the occasional onshore foray, the function of which mostly being to secure boat and crew for the succeeding leg. I suspect, though, that Newby could glean 300 pages from a dinghy ride in a swimming pool, and that that too would be immensely readable.

The archetypical harrassed traveller, at every turn events conspire to defeat or, at the least, humiliate Newby. The atmosphere of the journey is established during preparations which smack of the comical: "I had even bought an immense bamboo pole from the specialist shop in the bazaar as a defence against dacoits whose supposed whereabouts were indicated on some rather depressing maps which G. [their sometime native companion] had annotated with this and similar information, in the same way mediaeval cartographers had inscribed `Here be dragons' on the blank expanses of their productions." In any case, these maps proved unserviceable. Because of hostilities with China, Indian Defence Regulations of the time (1963) were so stringent that it was impossible to buy large-scale maps of India of any kind. (At any rate, many maps of the Ganges are unashamedly indecisive of its course owing to the shifting alluvial bed.)

Typically, arrangements that had been made in advance proved to be anything but arranged. The vessel intended to provide passage through the upper reaches of the Ganges was discovered to be in such a state of disrepair that use of it in a bathtub would have endangered lives. Attempts to procure another led Newby on an endeavour which he describes thus: "What we were doing in this instance was the equivalent in Britain of waking a fairly senior officer of the Metropolitan Water Board at a quarter to seven on a Winter's morning, in order to ask him to wake a yet more senior official and request the loan of a boat from one of the reservoirs in order to go down to Southend." Of course, the acquisition of another vessel appeased their troubles only momentarily.

The journey proper was fraught from the outset: "It is difficult to describe the emotions that one feels when one is aground on a twleve-hundred-mile boat journey within hailing distance of one's point of departure." When not stranded upon a shoal Newby is confounded by the various tributaries shooting off this way and that. About this he consults the only man in India worse off than he: "There was only one person to ask the way from, an old man sitting alone on the shingle, but he was not very helpful. `I don't know where I am,' he said."

When defeated by such circumstances Newby must, to advance his journey, venture ashore and seek out assistance. This demands the infiltration of the interminable mores of Indian society, a kind of mystic bureaucracy under which the populace shuns reason in favour of the myriad allegorical incarnations of the pantheon of mythic figures. He says of making even the most innocent inquiry: "But I knew that this was not the kind of question that can be asked in India - it was too logical and would therefore cause grave offence." He shortly arrives at the conclusion: "In India it is possible to win every battle but the last one."

During such battles Newby often retreats to his arsenal of introductions, formal letters written by state officials and the like, the ace up the sleeve of the traveller at tether's end. Not surprisingly these missives of officialdom are met by the Indian everyman with bemusement or else total indifference. His choicest letter, that from the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is singled for particularly devastating apathy.

Newby's travelling companion, his wife, the long-suffering Wanda, is rendered something of an enigma in SLOWLY DOWN THE GANGES. Apart from delivering Newby from the dire gastric consequences of provincial Indian foods ("Wanda had produced [white radishes] artfully from a mysterious-looking bag.") her reason for being appears mostly to be for materialising at inopportune moments, usually the apex of some maddening asperity, in order to scorch the occasion with some withering remark. This surely had Newby tearing at his hair, but the narrative is infused with a rich vein of self-deprecating humour because of it. (Their courtship, which was borne of hardships much graver, is recounted in another of Newby's titles, `LOVE AND WAR IN THE APINNENES')

Newby's own wit is deliciously dry. Unlike many contemporary travel writers he does not over-reach for a laugh or rely on out-and-out ridicule. However, his capacity for a descriptive turn of phrase is tested here. Certainly there are scapes that would arrest the senses of even the most impassive observer - shores lined with crazed sadhus and puja-devoted villagers, a river strewn with the pungent remnants of funerary pyres - but there is little variation on this theme for 1200 miles. And if the scenery is unchanging, then the characters - those folk along the way who lend a travel narrative its colour - are positively inanimate. Newby does admirably though, adroitly drawing from the cultural abyss the idiosyncrasies and personality interplay of guides and boatmen.

And so, his route may be fixed and his destination final, but Newby never fails to appreciate the telling advantage he holds over his grounded colleague: "The only consolation about being lost on a river is that if you go on downstream you are bound to arrive somewhere different, unlike being lost in a forest, where you are quite likely to end up where you started at the beginning of the day."

****1/2 stars.

(Contrary to what you may read, this book is anything but "insipid". Nor is it "lacking in prose, dialogue and structure." It, in fact, revels in them.)

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