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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2005, 256 pages
Paperback:
Jun 2006, 256 pages
The winner of Good Morning America's 2005 'Story of My Life' contest tells her story.
"I was late to school, and that's all I could think about. I started across the field. And then suddenly a fire flashed in my face and the earth seemed to move beneath my feet. I remember a shower of soil and then nothing. I woke up on the ground, surrounded by a crowd, men and boys...no women. They were all staring down at me with huge eyes. Their lips were moving, but I could hear no voices. All I heard was a loud ringing in my ears."
Farah Ahmedi is born into the world just as the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets reaches its peak in Afghanistan. Bombs are falling all over her country, and her native Kabul is swelling with hundreds of thousands of people looking for homes and jobs. The sounds of gunfire and fighter planes are as normal to Farah as the sounds of traffic or children playing are to a schoolgirl in America. When Farah steps on a land mine on her way to school, her world becomes much smaller than the dreams and hopes in her heart. She begins to learn--slowly--that ordinary people, often strangers, have immense power to save lives and restore hope.
The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky recounts an epic journey. It deftly interweaves a childhood in Afghanistan, where the classrooms are naked chambers with only chalkboards on the walls and are filled with more students than seats (and no books), with an American adolescence, where teenagers struggle to decide whether to try out for school plays, whom to take to the homecoming dance, and where to go to college. In Kabul, they cancel school because of rockets and bombings; in Chicago, Farah might have a snow day. In Kabul, a schoolgirl wears a black dress and a white headscarf; in America, girls need the right jeans and trendy tops.
Thanks to a number of good people who crossed her path at critical moments, Farah is thriving. She may be haunted by her past, but she is no longer enslaved by it. She is actively enjoying the realization of her childhood dreams; she's an Afghan American, free to learn, work, support herself, and choose her own path. She'll graduate from high school soon and is being recruited by some of the best colleges in the world.
Farah is living proof that not only can the human heart endure, it can also thrive. Even in war, there are miracles. Even when limbs are amputated, we are whole. Even in refugee camps, dreams come true. Even when fathers and siblings die young, there is love. The Story of My Life is our new great American memoir.
Published in hardcover as The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky.
Prologue
Alyce wanted me to share the story of my life. I told her that I wasn't ready,
that it was too soon. I'm not even nineteen years old, and I haven't achieved
anything yet. But Alyce said that with a life like mine, surviving itself is an
achievement--just surviving.
I don't know if she's right. When I look back at my childhood in Afghanistan,
it seems so far away and long ago. Back then I thought I would grow up and grow
old in the city of Kabul, surrounded by my big, complicated, loving family.
Little did I know I would lose most of them before I turned fourteen.
As a child, gazing at the high walls around our home compound, I longed to
see what lay on the other side of my city. I never dreamed that I would see our
home reduced to rubble and would end up living on the other side of the world,
in the suburbs of a city called Chicago.
But in the end, I have decided to tell this story because it is not mine
alone. It is the story ...
-James McBride, author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna
Inspiring....A wonderful story. Mary Higgins Clark, author of thirty-two worldwide bestsellers
The Story of My Life has that wonderful quality of survival and is most compelling. Seeing Afghanistan from the eyes of this girl provides a deep, rich look that we haven't seen before. Mary Karr, author of The Liar's Club and Cherry
Very compelling....Here you have a girl, a child, who suffered her own disability, [and] the loss of her family and her homeland. She's taking care of her aging mother and adapting to this new culture, and she's a bright, shining light in the world....Very moving. Peter Castro, executive editor of People magazine
A great twenty-first century American immigrant story. The Story of My Life is the modern American dream, and it's rich with details of the Taliban and AfghanistanWhen asked
whether the experience of
winning the contest has made her
want to be a writer Farah
replied, "I'll be happy
to write books. I would also be
happy to be in medicine, working
with prosthetics. But I have to
find out how smart I am. I also
like technology, working with
computers. My career could go in
different directions."
When asked how it feels to be in
America she says, "It feels
great to be in America .... I'm
safe here, no war. I like the
love I have here, and the
system. I like ...
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