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Three Lives through War, Love, and Revolt
From the internationally bestselling author of The Bookseller of Kabul, an expansive, deeply felt portrait of Afghanistan, examining the human cost of wars fought, lost, and won.
From Soviet occupation to the rise of the Taliban, from the outbreak of the War on Terror to its disastrous fallout, The Afghans is an extraordinary journey told over the course of three lives. Since she was a girl, Jamila fought tirelessly for her education. At 25, strengthened by the Quran and supported by the flow of international aid that accompanied U.S. invasion, she set off on a campaign to lead Afghanistan to a better future. Meanwhile, teenager Bashir joined the Taliban, eager to kill infidels in a holy war he would one day lead. In their crosshairs, Ariana grew up with hopes of becoming a lawyer-only to have them dashed in 2021 as the U.S. military pulled out and the Taliban retook Kabul, shuttered schools, and wiped the country clean of Western influence.
Taking us through the Taliban's first year in power, The Afghans is an essential contribution to the American reckoning with our longest war and a profound work of empathy for three people shaped by a ruinous battle for the soul of their nation.
"Indelible portraits of people struggling to survive in a war-torn land." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A gripping, richly textured account of Afghanistan's ordeal that humanizes all sides." —Publishers Weekly
"Seierstad chronicles years of war and the rise and resurgence of the Taliban through the intimate, affecting portraits of three lives lived in history's shadow." —Booklist
This information about The Afghans was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: hachettebookgroup.com
Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, and Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya. She lives in Oslo, Norway.
If you liked The Afghans, try these:
by Jasmine Aimaq
Published 2022
Jasmine Aimaq's stunning debut explores Afghanistan on the eve of a violent revolution and the far-reaching consequences of a young Kochi girl's tragic death.
by Amy Waldman
Published 2020
For readers of Cutting for Stone and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a "breathtaking and achingly nuanced" (Kirkus, starred review) new novel from the author of the national bestseller The Submission about the journey of a young Afghan-American woman trapped between her ideals and the complicated truth.
by Qais Akbar Omar
Published 2014
With all the emotional power of The Kite Runner, this is the very first true life account of growing up in Afghanistan, by a writer who still lives in Kabul.
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