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The Bookseller of Kabul | 
 enlarge | Author: Asne Seierstad
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 1020
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1844080471
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9781844080472
ASIN: 1844080471
Publication Date: March 4, 2004
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| Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
 Another very good read on Afghanistan July 30, 2008
Benoy N. Shah (London)
This was the 4th book I had read about Afghanistan, after The Swallows of Kabul and Khaled Hosseini's two classic bestsellers. The difference is that this is a non-fiction book.
The author is a Norwegian journalist who lives with an Afghani family for a few months and observes their daily lives and interactions. The head of the household in which she resides is the owner of the bookstore. The book highlights the male dominated Afghani culture, and the author frequently relates her anger (and even disgust) at the inevitable but sad destinies of most women in Afghanistan. No matter how educated or ambitious, many are forced to settle for a role as housewife and essentially servant to the men of the house. Step out of line...and expect a beating.
A real insight into a culture very, very different from ours... an interesting read.
 Never take books for granted May 12, 2008
R. Nicholson-morton (Alicante, Spain)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Asne was privileged to live with the `Khan' Afghan family in Kabul and was able to mingle with both men and women, probably because she was a westerner and knew no better. As a successful journalist Asne had spent six weeks with the commandos of the Northern Alliance - in the desert, the mountains, the valleys and the steppes, following their offensive against the Taliban.
What makes this book so interesting is that Asne has dared to describe thoughts and feelings of the family members - based on what they told her. This creates an immediacy and intimacy many similar books lack. We can definitely feel the frustrations of the men and the women - especially the downtrodden women!
Afghanistan in the 1970s was `westernised' in many ways, with luxurious hotels, electricity and running water in the towns and cities. (Since the fall of the Taliban, that's not the case now - it's a derelict city, filthy and crammed but not defeated). Women didn't have to wear the burka and could be seen in public without a veil; they could work and helped the economy keep afloat. Unfortunately, three years of drought and a catastrophic famine in 1973 led to a coup against the ruling monarchy. The new regime was more repressive and proved incompetent. The Soviet invasion in 1979 was supposed to stabilise the area but had the opposite effect. Egypt, China, Pakistan and the US armed the rebels fighting the Soviets and war raged for almost ten years, devastating the country. Into the vacuum left by the departing Soviets came the Taliban. White flags - Taliban's holy colour - flew over the mosques. The war was over - a new war was about to start, a war that would trample all joy under foot. Art and culture were anathema to these religious bigots.
It was against the backdrop of this regime that Sultan Khan tried to save parts of Afghanistan's culture - books about the history and geography and the people, including poetry. We take books for granted in our country, we have more than enough clogging up charity shops - yet in Afghanistan - and in other restrictive regimes such as the now-defunct Soviet Union - books were rare and therefore treasured, passed from hand to hand until they fell apart. Sultan risked imprisonment and worse by secretly buying and selling books.
Then of course the terrorist attack on 11 September changed everything. The Taliban were ousted and for once in almost a generation it was felt that people could return to normality - if the warring power-hungry tribal leaders would let them.
Sultan was able to open his book shops. The books are Sultan's life and his livelihood. He employs his sons in his shops too. The women stayed at home, providing for the men.
So since the fall of the Taliban, things have improved, but not greatly, it seems. A woman's lot is better, but not by much, in Afghanistan. Some women have abandoned the restrictive burka. Asne describes the archaic clothing - it pinches the head and causes headaches; it's difficult to see anything through the cloth grille; you're enclosed, little air gets in and you continually perspire; and you must walk with care because you can't see your feet. How liberated the women feel when they get home and take off the burka!
In Afghanistan a woman's longing for love is taboo. Young people have no right to meet, to love or to choose. Young women are above all objects to be bartered or sold because marriage is a contract between families or within families. Some women protested with suicide and song and Asne quotes from a book of poems: one asks Gods to make her a stone in the next life, rather than a woman.
It's the men's attitude to their women that really annoyed Asne. To all appearances there's no sex life in Afghanistan. Women hide behind the burka. Men and women who do not belong to the same family mustn't sit together in the same room. They must not talk to each other or eat together. But human nature can't be deprived; under the surface all is seething. In spite of running the risk of the death penalty, in Afghanistan too people have lovers and mistresses.
Asne has an observant eye and her fascination with everything she witnessed comes across, infusing the book with wonderful dialogue. Besides writing about weddings and journeys, relations and family squabbles, she also tells the stories of some female family members and how they face up to the bullying and hypocrisy of their men-folk. Especially poignant is Leila's story - frustrated in love, she is used as a virtual slave by her family. Asne's writing is fine and often moving: `... her crushed heart she leaves behind. Soon it blends with the dust... That evening she will sweep it up and throw it out...'
There's no happy ending. Let's hope the country will one day find one.
A captivating read. March 15, 2008
NickieB (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book in a day, hardly moving from my sunbed on holiday. It's an amazing insight into life in Afghanistan. As a female, I was totally horrified by the sad existance the women lead. They truly are seen as 2nd class citizens! The author lived with the Khan family and you get a birds eye view of real Afghan life behind closed doors. If you enjoyed the Kite Runner then this is worth reading.
An excellent book February 27, 2008
Shoryuken
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this book expecting an insight into the regime in a land much different to ours. Instead the author crafts a wonderful book which I could not put down. I was intrigued by the culture, society and the Afghan family central to the book. Each character has a different story facing their own different problems and issues.
This is a must read book which I highly reccomend
MEDIEVAL TIMES... February 24, 2008
Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Just after the fall of the Taliban regime, the author, an award winning Norwegian journalist, lived in Afghanistan with a middle class bookseller and his family for three months. What emerged from her intimate association with this family is a book that almost reads like a novel, so riveting is the account of life in post Taliban Afghanistan.
The bookseller, Sultan Khan, is a canny and shrewd business man, as well as a devout Muslim, who despite his love of books, seems to have learned little from the knowledge at his fingertips. He rules the roost like a patriarchal despot with a decidedly strict view of the role of women. In fact, it is through the women in his household that the reader is drawn into how truly circumscribed and stultifying life is for Afghani women, even after the Taliban is no longer in power. Khan rules his household as if it were a feudal fiefdom, with little thought, concern, or interest in the desires, hopes, and dreams of the members of his household.
The author's reporting on what life is like in post Taliban Afghanistan paints a fairly grim picture of a society fraught with ignorance and corruption. It is a society where women are merely chattel with little or no say in their future. Education is pretty much non-existent, and what passes for such is pathetic. Even that little, however, is routinely denied to the feminine gender. It was also particularly surprising, as well as ironic, that Sultan Khan, being a bookseller and purporting to love books, denied even his sons an education.
The author certainly has had an eye-opening experience by donning a burka and I, for one, am glad that she chose to share it. Despite its lack of any cogent critical analysis, this is certainly a provocative book and one that will provide much food for thought. Her birds-eye view of life in Afghanistan is truly a powerful statement and an indictment of a society so steeped in ignorance and poverty that it will take a miracle for it to enter into the twenty first century. Life in modern day Afghanistan is bleak, indeed. Those with an interest in other cultures will certainly enjoy this book.
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