Description
In spring 2002, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad spent four months living with Sultan Khan, a courageous bookseller who defied communist and Taliban authorities for over two decades to keep literature alive in Kabul. Through intimate access to both the private world of Khan's family—including his two wives—and the public sphere of his bookshop, Seierstad crafts a gripping portrait of a man whose passion for books and hatred of censorship coexist with deeply traditional views on family and women's roles. As the family members speak for themselves, their stories reveal the complexities of daily life in post-Taliban Afghanistan: proposals and marriages, hope and fear, crime and punishment, and the struggle to rebuild a nation emerging from decades of repression. This mesmerizing account offers both a celebration of one man's heroic resistance to censorship and a clear-eyed, unflinching look at the realities facing Afghan women and society. The result is a profound meditation on the power of books, the cost of freedom, and the contradictions that define human nature and cultural transformation.
Available Editions
paperback
Back Bay Books
Published Jan 1, 2004
288 pages
ISBN: 9780316159418
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Details
First Published
2002
Language
eng
Translation
From: nor
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad.