The BookBrowse Review

Published July 30, 2025

ISSN: 1930-0018

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Book Jacket

The Afghans
Three Lives through War, Love, and Revolt
by Åsne Seierstad
5 Aug 2025
448 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Critics:

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

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.

Other books by this author at BookBrowse:

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