“She couldn't survey the wreck of the world with an air of casual unconcern.”

----Margaret Mitchell


Åsne Seierstad, an Award winning journalist-turned-Norwegian-author, has penned a delectable and slightly captivating account of her stay with an Afghan family, who owned a bookshop in a terror-stricken and on-the-verge-of-a-civil-war type Kabul in the year 2002, in the book called, The Bookseller of Kabul. This is the personal story of almost every human being, mainly women of the household, from the bookseller family, with two wives and tons of children and an equally great number of siblings, the bookseller is a subtly liberal man of his times, that only demanded women of each and every household to stay indoors and keep giving birth until their last dying breath.


Synopsis:

In spring 2002, following the fall of the Taliban, Asne Seierstad spent four months living with a bookseller and his family in Kabul.

For more than twenty years Sultan Khan defied the authorities - be they communist or Taliban - to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the communists, and watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. He even resorted to hiding most of his stock - almost ten thousand books - in attics all over Kabul.

But while Khan is passionate in his love of books and his hatred of censorship, he also has strict views on family life and the role of women. As an outsider, Asne Seierstad found herself in a unique position, able to move freely between the private, restricted sphere of the women - including Khan's two wives - and the freer, more public lives of the men.

It is an experience that Seierstad finds both fascinating and frustrating. As she steps back from the page and allows the Khans to speak for themselves, we learn of proposals and marriages, hope and fear, crime and punishment. The result is a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and a clear-eyed assessment of a country struggling to free itself from history.


The household of Sultan Khan in Kabul, ruled under the communist party, which is later succeeded by the Taliban's dictatorial rule, is not a happy place for the women, with two wives and a handful of children from the wives and lots of siblings and grandparents. This house is more like a time warp with one generation after another shares their journeys together, despite of unhappiness and constraints. Although Sultan Khan who is a reputed bookshop owner, selling modern Afghan books, some controversial Afghan books and a lot of history books about Afghanistan, is a free-thinker and a liberal man about politics and his patriotism, yet he is a very tyrannical man when it comes to the women of his household, be it his wives or his daughters or his sisters or his own mother, he dominates them all with old customs and difficult rules as set in the Holy Quran by the Prophet. Sultan Khan never believed in women's equal rights or their right to education or their right to choose their own husbands or their right to live freely, only in the right to obey the man of the house with their heads bowing-down-to-their-feet. Seierstad has lived with this particular Muslim family for four months to experience their grueling lifestyle both in a repressive household as well as in a country dominated by warlords and religious dictators.

Always being on the verge of a civil war, Afghanistan has forever suffered a lot, lost a lot of its history in the dust and the bloodshed, and so are the country's women, who too have suffered silently through ages. The author has brought out and have captured vividly those pain of both the country as well as of the women always clad and bound behind a black veil and a burka, evocatively. The author's personal account definitely moved me and that too very deeply, but has failed to stir any emotions or my thoughts towards the women or the men from this book.

The author's writing style is eloquent and evocative enough to make the readers feel and comprehend with her story line. The narrative is very mush realistic, and it will feel like the characters voicing their honest opinions discreetly in the ears of the author. Even though it has been translated into English, I felt that the charm of the author and her flair has not been lost in translation. The prose is articulate and really strong and that which leaves room for the readers' own judgement and thoughts.

The backdrop of an unhinged Kabul is portrayed strikingly by the author in her story line, and have successfully captured both the rugged and golden terrains and landscape as well as the struggle of the country's citizens, especially the women. While reading, the book transported me straight in front of Sultan's bookshop as well as right in the middle of his large brick house, and felt the scenes unraveling right before my own eyes. The author not only did her research well enough to strike a cord into the hearts of her readers, but have also arrested them in a fascinating way to let the readers experience a troubled and terror-stricken country from their minds' eyes.

The characters are the most disappointing fact of this book as they will not only fail to impress the readers of the book, but will only irk them up with their lack of development. As for me, I lost interest in their tragedy or in their lights, what kept me engaged is the country's disturbing politics and religious extremist ideals. The lives of the female characters could have been written with much more depth, so that they could leave an imprint in the minds of the readers. The accounts of the women are very scattered and disoriented, hence at times, I felt very bored to keep reading the book.

In a nutshell, even though this is non fictional account of a journalist-turned-author's experience of living in a dangerous and repressive Muslim country, yet somehow, this book is not that great enough to read and explore about such a country. I do not recommend this to any reader.

Verdict: A behind-the-veil and an honest story of a bookseller and his family in Kabul.

Un libro te permite viajar, y adentrarse en "vidas ajenas" que, al final, están más que relacionadas a uno mismo de lo que podemos aceptar. Este libro sin duda es hermoso, por la manera tan asimilable en la que Asne narra la historia. Creo que va al punto, y de una manera exquisita, sin reparar en descripciones sofocantes; eso hace que la historia fluya, y fluya.
Por otra parte, es un libro dificil, es un "retrato de la vida real", no es un cuento de hadas. Una historia en dónde siento un choque cultural, y a la vez, una familiaridad con toda la serie de absurdas imposiciones machistas, radicales, y fanaticas que se puedan dar en una sociedad tercermundista, injusta, religiosa y decadente. Si, es nuestra sociedad, aun.
Es muy interesante poder dar un vistazo a lo que se vive en Afganistan, Pakistan, Kabul, y otros lugares: después de lo sucedido en las torres gemelas... Lo que deja la guerra, la pobreza, el fantasma del hambre y de la miseria en todo su fulgor; pero la vida sigue, y sigue. Las tradiciones sobreviven a cualquier dictador, y eso hace que la miseria y la desgracia, puedan seguir implicandose en las vidas de las personas inocentes, y con sueños: sueños que ni ellos entienden, atisbos de una vida mejor, y algo que resuena en el interior, quizás una luz de fé. Los seres humanos somos muy fuertes.
Personajes inocentes, neutrales, buenos, egoistas, marginados, ventajosos. Seres buenos, en lo que cabe, y seres crueles: debido a las circunstancias. El que tiene, no comparte, y el que no tiene, se comforma, pues sabe que el destino, va más allá de sus vidas, y de sus generaciones.
Vale, que recomiendo muchisimo leer este libro, y reflexionar mucho, y saber que ciertamente el cambio, comienza en nuestros hogares. No se si esté en español pero, vale la pena leerlo.

There are lots of negative reviews of this book on Goodreads, but I found it quite enlightening, and several comments have been left by readers born in Afghanistan or in similar societies saying that yes, it reflects reality, even though the author spent only three months living with Sultan Khan's family.

I feel better able now to visualize and understand the situation there and I even have a concrete idea of how the country's history has progressed and how its people have been affected by the changes of regime. Sultan Khan is the arch-capitalist in this account and one cannot but agree that in this country, men with his drive and determination are a good thing. Yet it is understandable that the young men should rebel against the control of the older generation, even if they often tend to do it in worthless ways. Leila's situation, and that of the other women, breaks my heart.

Money from the book's sales are being used to invest in education in Afghanistan. A worthy cause. Maybe Leila will at some point have a chance to learn and teach.

Incredible! Norwegian journalist, Asne Seierstad, lived in Afghanistan with Sultan Khan and his family for three months to write this book. Seierstad met Khan while purchasing seven books at his bookshop in Kabul. Khan described how three different regimes that ruled Kabul (Communists, Mujahedeen, and the Taliban) burned and looted his books. Seierstad views Khan as a history book on two feet.

Khan's nineteen-year-old daughter, Leila, was responsible for ensuring Seierstad's needs were met. Leila was also responsible for cooking, cleaning, and taking care of thirteen members of the family.

Seierstad wore a burka while she lived in Afghanistan because she wanted to understand what it felt like. It also helped her be more anonymous.

The tough parts of the book include details about domestic abuse, child brides, honor killings, polygamy, and the subjugation of women.

I admire and I'm in awe of the depths Seierstad went to in order to research and understand the lives of this extended Afghan family.

After finishing the book, I was quite surprised at the number of negative reviews here in Goodreads. Maybe a huge culture shock is at play here. Many in the West may be put off by the realization that the values that they take for granted may be totally unheard of in certain parts of the world. There *are* certain cultures where children are nothing but tools for parents and as such, are actively denied education. There *are* cultures where falling in love is a greater "crime" than sawing off a person's head. I know for a fact that people in my culture have gotten used to murders and negligence of human rights, but if a couple were caught kissing in public, as it were the very fabric of society would be shred to smithereens. There *are* societies where women are nothing more than baby-making and house-keeping machines, commodities which are to be sold off in the financial ritual of marriage. Since I grew up in a culture not vastly different from the one portrayed in this book, I find it hard to dismiss this account as prejudiced hogwash. That, and I also steer clear of any sort of cultural relativism. I know for a fact that no one in the comparatively progressive world would want to be a woman in Afghan society after reading this book, even more so after living in the country for some time by himself/herself. The author may not have captured Afghan culture in its entirety(and no where has she made that claim), but she has been anything but prejudiced.

For me, the pathos in this book lies in the hopes and aspirations of the members of the Khan family living in a post-Taliban Afghanistan. The women want education and a job, the children want to play, young men and women of the country want to fall in love in spite of knowing the dire consequences, and Sultan Khan wants to contribute towards building a better and liberal Afghanistan, a country which he can boast of to the world. This book draws a very humane picture of an obscure society, a picture that very often fails to filter through the coloured glasses of mainstream media.

THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL (2002) is a non-fiction book written by Åsne Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist, about an Afghan bookseller and his family.

Seierstad met the bookseller in Kabul and was very impressed by him. He certainly was no ordinary bookseller. He is described as a very enterprising man, a kind of "cultural hero" despite living in a society with a high percentage of illiterate people. He risked his life many times to prevent his thousands of books being burned first by the communists, then by the Mujahideen and finally by the Taliban. He did so in order to save the literary heritage of his country.

Seierstad asked him if she could come and live with his family and write an intimate portrait of their lives. He agreed and for almost 6 months she shared her life with his family. He changed his name and the name of each member of his family for the sake of politeness. She named him Sultan Khan.

Sultan Khan likes to think of himself as a free thinker, as well a cultural hero. In public he defends women's rights and liberal ideas. At home, however, it seems he is a despotic patriarch, obsessed with money and his business, who refuses education to his sons and daughters and practically enslaves them all. The boys work long grueling hours in his shops, and the girls at home.

THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL is a portrait of daily life in Afghanistan in 2002. It is a shocking , repulsive story which includes a surprising amount of intimate details, especially on the oppressive nature of the life of Afghani women.

Khan felt betrayed and outraged. He felt his family's dirty linen was exposed unashamedly to the public gaze. This should not be surprising. Seierstad accepted Khan's hospitality for almost 6 months, she slept next to his 19 year old sister and shared with the women (and men) their most private secrets and longings.

The book became a bestseller and was translated into many languages but it provoked a controversy from the moment it was published. Khan repudiated the book and took Seierstad to court. He accused her of treachery and slander, he claimed that she had humiliated and destroyed his family and that she had dishonored Afghanistan.

It is true that her outrage at the way women are treated is barely concealed. Seierstad hides behind an implausible omniscient narrator who has access to the thoughts and feelings of all the family members. For this reason this book reads like fiction, not a memoir nor a travelogue. While this book was written 20 years ago and we may feel that Seierstad was somewhat unsympathetic and unkind to the family who opened their lives to her, I believe her book still casts a light on the difficult and grim life in Afghanistan today.

The story starts out with the chapter “The Proposal” in which Sultan Khan, the bookseller, feels that he is ready for a new wife although he already has one. And while Afghan customs permit more than one wife, some of his family are against his decision. The author concentrates on Sultans decision and the effects it has on his family. The reader is taken inside the head of the first wife, Sharifa, and his new young bride. Through their voices, we see a glimpse of the caste system. n  “A wedding is like a small death.”n

While emphasizing Afghanistan customs through the tangled emotions that the family experiences because of Sultans marriage decision, its culture is revealed through the occurrences in the bookshop. With Mansur Khan working in his father’s bookshop, the reader sees a colorful and vibrant city that sometimes weeps for its people. He sees the effects of war surrounding them and craves a different reality.

Though not nonfiction, I still found the information and story enticing. The author writes with a journalists touch and has an affinity for incorporating political thought through the dialogue. The Foreword at the beginning of this book explains how the author ended up living with the Khan family in Kabul. It is a must read before beginning the story since the story is based on real events and people, although considered a work of fiction.
Being only 288 pages, it is a short read for those pressed with time.

حاولت إنى أكمل الرواية ديه بس للآسف كئيبة بشكل رهييب ومؤثرة على مودى فاكتفيت بما قرأته ما فوق ٢٠٠ صفحة ولم استطع أن أكمل المائة الباقية... فى البداية إشتريت الرواية على إسمها ولكن جاء الاسم بعيدًا عن محتواه نهائى.. توقعت أن تتكلم عن الكتب ولكن ما لاقتيه عكس ذلك ... مجتمع أسود لا يقل حالا عن التخلف فى بقية البلاد العربية. تعامل المرأة ... كذلك رأيت استحقار لطالبان فى أشياء أمر بها الإسلام فعلا، ولسه ارهاب أو تطرف..

I like Asne Seierstad's books. She is a Norwegian journalist who is no stranger to conflict zones. Infact,she seems to revel in putting herself in dangerous situations.

She actually opted to stay on in Baghdad after the US invasion in 2003,as bombs rained down from the sky.

In this book,she chose to go to Afghanistan soon after the US invasion and stayed on with the family of an Afghan bookseller.

This man had two wives. It is a fascinating account of the trials and tribulations of this family's life in a country which has remained a war zone for decades.

The bookseller carries on with his rather unusual business in Kabul where relatively few would be interested in reading.

The details of the women's lives provide plenty of interest too.This was among the first books on the subject,later there would be a deluge of similar books.

But it does appear that her book made life difficult for the real life bookseller in Kabul,as the book was translated locally.

He sued the author for defamation and won initially,before the verdict was overturned on appeal.He later wrote his own version of the story.

As one reviewer put it,"it is quite unlike anything else." It is a compelling portrait of Afghan people,a family,the ravages of war and the hardships they have had to endure.

Seierstad has great story telling skills and puts them to good use in this international bestseller,written when interest in Afghanistan was at its peak,following 9/11 and the US invasion.

The author had been with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan reporting on the war with the Taliban. When the Taliban was defeated (mostly), she came to Kabul. She made friends with a bookseller and was granted permission to live with him and his family in order to tell the story of Afghan life. In her introduction, she makes it clear this was not necessarily a typical family. Sultan Khan was most decidedly middle class in a country that had few in that economic class.

The author gives us a brief history of how Afghanistan came to its then present state. I think, rather than being a family story, this is more a snapshot of what Kabul was like in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban. The electricity might be on for only a few hours a day, those hours and the duration being unpredictable. This household had running water, sort of. There would likely be running water in the morning, but probably only for an hour or two. The challenge was to fill every receptacle while it was still available, so that it would be there when the water stopped running. Oh, and this, of course, was cold water - they had to make their own hot water.

Seierstad writes in a manner easy to read and follow. She tells us about some Islamic traditions. I found the tradition of arranged marriages and the wedding preparations and the ceremony itself very interesting. There were a lot of characters, most of whom were related. Through one character, Sultan Khan's youngest sister, we are able to see the workings of a household.

I don't know how much has changed in Kabul since this was first published in 2002. I'm glad to have read this, and although I have no immediate plans to read further, I would be interested in a follow-up at some future time.

Ίσως φταίει το γεγονός πως το διάβασα πολλά χρόνια μετά την έκδοσή του, ίσως φταίει που από τότε έχω διαβάσει πολλά άλλα βιβλία που περιγράφουν τις τρομερές συνέπειες που επικρατούν στις κοινωνίες όπου η θεοκρατία είναι ο νό��ος. Βασισμένο, βεβαίως, σε πραγματικά γεγονότα, νομίζω πως ήταν περισσότερο αποστασιοποιημένη καταγραφή εκ μέρους της συγγραφέως των συνθηκών διαβίωσης και λειτουργίας της οικογένειας του βιβλιοπώλη, χωρίς η ίδια να φαίνεται πουθενά. Δεν είναι υποχρεωτικά κακό αυτό, ένιωσα όμως να λείπει η θέρμη του ανθρώπου που καταγράφει γεγονότα αδιανόητα για τη σύγχρονη ανθρωπότητα.
Σε κάθε περίπτωση, είναι μια σοβαρή μαρτυρία για την κοινωνική παθογένεια στο Αφγανιστάν, μια χώρα που δεν ηρεμεί ποτέ, έρμαιο ανάμεσα στις παραδόσεις,τον αναλφαβητισμό, την τυφλή θρησκοληψία, την Ανατολή και τη Δύση. Μια κοινωνία σε βαθύτατο σκοτάδι, μια κοινωνία στην οποία ο παράδεισος είναι απαγορευμένος.
3.5/5

Two and a half stars... I may round up to 3. An interesting view on life in Afghanistan in the early 2000s. My feeling on finishing the book was one of overwhelming sadness. Life is so hard for some, and reading the book made me feel extremely grateful for the life I have, where I can be independent woman and be in charge of my own choices and destiny. I felt desperately sorry for Leila, and the chapter on the carpenter left me in tears. I wouldn’t say it was an enjoyable read, but it made me think and appreciate the choices I have in life