I was really looking forward to reading The Bookseller of Kabul having heard the author interviewed on Irish radio. But I was terribly disappointed. I found the book to be very unbalanced and wondered if she liked any of the people whom she admitted were extremely …more hospitable to her. She seems to have some regard for Leila alone. Of course there are things in Afghanistan that many westerners find unacceptable but I do not believe that the people are so unlikeabe and nasty to each other as she portrays them. They seem not to have any redeeming qualities at all according to Asne Seierstad, apart from their hospitality. No matter what the problems in a society, people have good and bad qualities. Perhaps the Khan family's greatest fault was in trusting this writer to be fair and balanced. Contrast this to The Kite Runner also set largely in Afghanistan and The Blond in the Bazaar -which although less well written from a literary point of view, is a much more balanced view of another Moslem society - this time Pakistan. (less)