The bookseller of Kabul / Åsne Seierstad ; translated by Ingrid Christopher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Seierstad, Åsne, 1970-

Contributor:

Christophersen, Ingrid.

Standardized Title:

Bokhandleren i Kabul. English

Language:

English

Norwegian

Subjects (All):

Khan family.

Kabul (Afghanistan)--Biography.

Kabul (Afghanistan).

Booksellers and bookselling--Afghanistan--Kābol.

Booksellers and bookselling.

Seierstad, Åsne, 1970---Travel--Afghanistan--Kābol.

Seierstad, Åsne.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 287 pages ; 19 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Little, Brown, 2003.

Language Note:

Translated from the Norwegian.

Summary:

In Afghanistan, just after the fall of the Taliban, a bookseller named Sultan Khan allowed a Western journalist to move into his home and experience firsthand his family's life in the newly liberated capital city of Kabul. From that act of openness emerges this remarkable book, already an international best-seller -- the most intimate look yet at ordinary life for those who have weathered Afghanistan's extraordinary upheavals. One husband, two wives, five children, and many other relatives sharing four small rooms opened up their lives, unforgettably. First is Sultan himself, a man whose love of books has exposed him to great risks over his thirty years in the trade. He has seen his volumes censored, ripped apart, even burned in the street by the Communists and the Taliban. Each time, he rebuilt his business, hiding the most controversial texts, surviving prison, traveling treacherous back roads to Pakistan to order much-needed schoolbooks. He takes joy in selling books of history, science, art, religion, and poetry, and defends his business with a primal ferocity against competitors and theft.

But Sultan is also a committed Muslim with strict views on filial respect and the role of women. We meet his wife, Sharifa, when she learns that Sultan is taking a new bride, as his status in the community dictates. Despite custom, it is agonizing for the mother of Sultan's children to see her place usurped. We follow their teenage son, Mansur, as he embarks on his first religious pilgrimage, which embodies all the excitement of youth's first rebellion. And we see Sultan's younger sisters, as one prepares for her wedding while another seeks a job to escape her family's tight grip. Stepping back from the page, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad allows the Khans to speak for themselves about their joys, sorrows, rivalries, loves, dreams, and temptations. Through this close-knit household, we gain an intimate view -- as few outsiders have seen it -- of life in an Islamic country just beginning to find its way between the forces of modernity and tradition.

Contents:

The Proposal 3

Burning Books 9

Crime and Punishment 23

Suicide and Song 37

The Business Trip 41

Do You Want to Make Me Sad? 67

No Admission to Heaven 80

Billowing, Fluttering, Winding 84

A Third-Rate Wedding 94

The Matriarch 106

Temptations 122

The Call from Ali 131

The Smell of Dust 163

An Attempt 181

Can God Die? 194

The Dreary Room 204

The Carpenter 214

My Mother Osama 245

A Broken Heart 267.

ISBN:

0316734500

OCLC:

52575352