The Bookseller of Kabul
by Asne Seierstad
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Book Summary Information
Author: Asne SeierstadTranslator: Ingrid Christophersen
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-10-26
ISBN: 0316159417
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of The Bookseller of Kabul
Book Review: Honest and candid account
Summary: 5 Stars
Asne Seirstadt writes an honest and candid account of her four months of life with an Afghan family, following the fall of the Taliban and the end of the reign of terror they subjected the Afghan people to.
She spent these months with the family of Sultan Khan who- for twenty years-defied the tyranny of the Communists and then the Taliban by selling books on the black market because the tyrants did not allow books except those which subscribed to their narrow minded and sick ideas.
Afghanistan was a great, progressive and vibrant country during the reign of King Zahir Shah who was overthrown by Mohammed Daoud Khan in 1973 after which followed 5 years of instability and then the sheer hell of Communist repression followed shortly thereafter by the Taliban's reign of terror.
During the 70s already underdressed women risked being shot in the legs or having acid sprayed in their faces by the fundamentalists.
After the civil war broke out more and more women had to cover up. After the Taliban seized power all female faces disappeared from the streets of Kabul.
My heart really hurts for these women and girls who suffered so under the Islamists and had to be hidden away and obey through fear.
And I point an accusing finger at all those leftists who claim to believe in feminism but defend excesses Should women in these countries got less rights than what you people take for granted?
Even after the Taliban were overthrown women and girls feared going out alone or dressing as they pleased, because of the residue of terror that the Taliban had left behind.
During the Taliban era one of the most hated buildings in Kabul was the "Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Extermination of Sin". Here women who had walked unescorted by a male relative, or who wore makeup under their burkas, and men who cut their beards, languished under torture and many died.
Before that these had once bee the headquarters of the equally brutal Soviets.
No wonder Leftists and Islamo-Fascists love each other so much. They both have the mania for cruelty and destruction and the death impulse.
Asne Seirstadt witnessed the destruction and death left behind by the Taliban.
The Taliban engaged in ethnic cleansing of the Tajiks and other minorities in northern Afghanistan, raising entire villages to the ground and poisoning water wells and blowing water pipes and dams (vital for survival in these dry plains) before they withdrew.
Seirstadt masterfully covers the sights, sounds and smells of Afghanistan from the cramped life in people's houses where extended families lived together to the bazaars and the 'hamman', the massive communal bath, where thousands of women cleaned themselves and their children on certain days of the week.
Seirstadt captures much of Afghanistan's history and life and culture in these pages.
It is an excellent book for those who want to learn about this country.
Summary of The Bookseller of Kabul
This mesmerizing portrait of a proud man who, through three decades and successive repressive regimes, heroically braved persecution to bring books to the people of Kabul has elicited extraordinary praise throughout the world and become a phenomenal international bestseller. The Bookseller of Kabul is startling in its intimacy and its details - a revelation of the plight of Afghan women and a window into the surprising realities of daily life in today's Afghanistan.Asia Books
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