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The Bookseller of Kabul
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.10922
EAN: 9780316159418
ISBN: 0316159417
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: October 26, 2004
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Editorial Review:
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - An interesting portrayal of life in Kabul at the beginning of the 21st century
Seierstad begins the book with a foreword in praise of Sultan Khan, the bookseller she meets in Kabul. I (or the reader) is maybe expecting a warm account of family life amongst the unsettled times in Kabul during 2002, and after the terrorist attacks in America. Alongside that, a little history of Afghanistan and the political environment that saw soldiers burning his books in the street.
However...what we get is a disturbing account of everyday life for that particular family and ... Read More
Rating: - A Glimpse in the Life of an Afghani Family
This is the depiction of a real Afghani family written by a journalist that wound up in bookstore and developed a "friendship" with the store's owner. The journalist decided that it would be interesting to live with a family in Afghanistan and this bookseller opened his home to her. Previously, I used the word "friendship" lightly because as the depiction progresses, the reader gains insight into that traditional role of the male head of the family, and the journalist does not portray the bookseller ... Read More
Rating:  - Excellent book
This book provides an excellent portrait of Afghanistan. Very well written, easy to read. Great choice for book clubs; full of material for great discussions.
Rating:  - not very exciting
The bookseller of Kabul from Asne Seierstad.
Even before I could finish the lecture of the book - I stay around the midle -I can say that the book is readable but not exciting, outstanding piece or something really especial. To be honest I expected something more from a so exciting issue especially from a person who live this advanture in the first line. I cannot see the soul of the book anywhere.
Rating:  - Where should poor reader focus?
This book has nothing remotely to do with books or love of books or looking at a culture or hard times from a bookseller's perspective or even simply selling books.
The book feels like a series of journalistic portraitures rather than a coherent comprehensive picture about life in Afghanistan. The author never gets over herself or her anger at injustice that she saw perpetrated (accepted as norm) in Afghanistan. The author's anger does does not help in clarifying the situation but drags the reader ... Read More
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