false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178730783m/827183.jpg 9838 34 For more than twenty years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities, whether communist or Taliban, to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he has persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places. This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family - two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room apartment in this war-ravaged city. As they endure the extraordinary trials and tensions of Afghanistan's upheavals, they also still try to live ordinary lives, with work, relaxation, shopping, cooking, marriages, rivalries, and shared joys. Most of all, this is an intimate portrait of family life under Islam. Even after the Taliban's collapse, the women in Khan's family must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn, and communicate with others. Seierstad lived with Khan's family for months, experiencing first-hand Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Stepping back from the page, she allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions. 1052584 2002 The Bookseller of Kabul total:4907|5:784|4:2059|3:1604|2:383|1:77| 4907 17811 7010 930 1 9 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 11 16:38:14 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 11 16:50:42 -0700 2007
Basically the situation is like this: a woman journalist is in Kabul after 9/11. She meets this bookseller, lives with his family a few months with only 3 people in the fam...more...]]> 3 5 false false Mon Jun 11 16:46:39 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 19:27:11 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 5 false false Tue Mar 04 19:06:48 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 06 10:01:33 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Aug 10 17:01:12 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 17:10:31 -0700 2008 You think, after reading the forward and the beginning of the book, that the bookseller will be a progressive man, but his love for his country's history and its literary heritage is his ...more...]]> 3 2 false false Tue May 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri May 09 09:31:53 -0700 2008 Wed May 21 23:43:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 09:58:41 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 10:03:11 -0700 2007
The premise of the book is this: Its non-fiction, written in novel form. Basically, this author (female from Norway) lived with a family for a period of time and interviewed them ab...more...]]> 3 2 false false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 10:37:41 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 18:48:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Jul 27 11:42:01 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 11:45:00 -0700 2008 2 1 false false Sat Sep 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 08:44:36 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 18 08:37:07 -0700 2009 Who? What? When? Where? Why?

I assume how for young Seierstad was the same.
Then she became talented enough as a journalist for being a reporter. And as a correspondant she bec...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 12:38:48 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 12:39:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 07 07:15:56 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 07 07:28:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Mar 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Dec 29 12:26:27 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 20 11:00:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Apr 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 10:55:43 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 04:01:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 30 22:17:10 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 09:34:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Feb 26 11:02:59 -0800 2007 Mon Feb 26 11:33:30 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Nov 26 22:12:08 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 19 15:08:27 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 11:51:45 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 12:01:42 -0700 2009
I have written this book in literary form, but it is based on real events or what was told to me by people who took part in those events. When I describe thou...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 04 13:06:58 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 13:07:10 -0800 2009 Portrait Of An Afghan Family, 31 Dec 2005


"Sultan recounted stories: the sons laughed and joked. The atmosphere was unrestrained, and a huge contrast to the simple meals with commandos in the mountains. But I soon noticed that the women said little. Sultan...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 30 13:31:05 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 13:36:43 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Nov 20 10:03:43 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 10:45:51 -0800 2009 1
I wasn't going to write a review of this book at all until I read some of the other reviews posted here and became horrified at their castigation of Ms. Seierst...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=827183