The Bookseller of Kabul

2003-12-01
 |  History
The Bookseller of Kabul

Author: Åsne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780759509405

Category: History

Page: 304

View: 288

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This phenomenal international bestseller is "an admirable, revealing portrait of daily life in a country that Washington claims to have liberated but does not begin to understand" (Washington Post). This mesmerizing portrait of a proud man who, through three decades and successive repressive regimes, heroically braved persecution to bring books to the people of Kabul has elicited extraordinary praise throughout the world and become a phenomenal international bestseller. The Bookseller of Kabul is startling in its intimacy and its details — a revelation of the plight of Afghan women and a window into the surprising realities of daily life in Afghanistan. "The most intimate description of an Afghan household ever produced by a Western journalist...Seierstad is a sharp and often lyrical observer." —New York Times Book Review

The Bookseller of Kabul

2003-10-29
 |  History
The Bookseller of Kabul

Author: Asne Seierstad

Publisher: Little, Brown

ISBN: 0316734500

Category: History

Page: 304

View: 405

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With The Bookseller of Kabul, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad has given readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Invited to live with Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, and his family for months, this account of her experience 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. For more than 20 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 had 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 house in this war ravaged city. But more than that, it is a rare look at contemporary life under Islam, where even after the Taliban's collapse, the women must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn and communicate with others.

Chasing Tales

2007-01
 |  Language Arts & Disciplines
Chasing Tales

Author: Corinne Fowler

Publisher: Rodopi

ISBN: 9789042022621

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 283

View: 333

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Chasing Tales is the first exclusive study of journalism, travel writing and the history of British ideas about Afghanistan. It offers a timely investigation of the notional Afghanistan(s) that have prevailed in the popular British imagination. Casting its net deep into the nineteenth century, the study investigates the country's mythologisation by scrutinising travel narratives, literary fiction and British news media coverage of the recent conflict in Afghanistan. This highly topical book explores the legacy of nineteenth-century paranoias and prejudices to contemporary travellers and journalists and seeks to explain why Afghans continue to be depicted as medieval, murderous, warlike and unruly. Its title,Chasing Tales, conveys the circulation, and indeed the circularity, of ideas commonly found in British travel writing and journalism. The 'tales' component stresses the pivotal role played by fictionalised sources, especially the writing of Rudyard Kipling, in perpetuating traumatic nineteenth-century memories of Afghan-British encounter. The subject matter is compelling and its foci of interest profoundly relevant both to current political debates and to scholarly enquiry about the ethics of travel.

Two Sisters

2018-03-13
 |  History
Two Sisters

Author: Asne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780349009032

Category: History

Page: 464

View: 577

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'Åsne Seierstad is the supreme non-fiction writer of her generation ... Two Sisters isn't only the story of how a pair of teenage girls became radicalised but an unsparing portrait of our own society - of its failings and its joys' Luke Harding On 17 October 2013, teenage sisters Ayan and Leila Juma left their family home near Oslo, seemingly as usual. Later that day they sent an email to their unsuspecting parents, confessing they were on their way to Syria. They had been planning the trip for months in secret. Åsne Seierstad - working closely with the family - followed the story through its many dramatic twists and turns. This is, in part, a story about Syria. But most of all it is a story of what happens to apparently ordinary people when their lives are turned upside down by conflict and tragedy. 'A masterpiece and a masterclass in investigative journalism' Christina Lamb, Sunday Times 'Meticulously documented, full of drama ... this is a tale fluently told, and a thriller as well' Kate Adie, Literary Review 'A masterwork. Brilliantly conceived, scrupulously reported and beautifully written, this book is compulsive reading' Jon Lee Anderson

A Hundred And One Days

2015-02-05
 |  History
A Hundred And One Days

Author: Asne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780349006956

Category: History

Page: 336

View: 621

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A fascinating, personal and insightful account of the Iraq war from the bestselling author of THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL In January 2003 Åsne Seierstad entered Baghdad on a ten-day visa. She was to stay for over three months, reporting on the war and its aftermath. A Hundred and One Days is her compelling account of a city under siege, and a fascinating insight into the life of a foreign correspondent. An award-winning writer, Seierstad brilliantly details the frustrations and dangers journalists faced trying to uncover the truth behind the all-pervasive propaganda. She also offers a unique portrait of Baghdad and its people, trying to go about their daily business under the constant threat of attack. Seierstad's passionate and erudite book conveys both the drama and the tragedy of her one hundred and one days in a city at war. 'Åsne Seierstad is the supreme non-fiction writer of her generation' Luke Harding

A Hundred and One Days

2009-04-24
 |  Biography & Autobiography
A Hundred and One Days

Author: Åsne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780786736829

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 336

View: 899

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From January until April 2003 -- for one hundred and one days -- Ã?ne Seierstad worked as a reporter in Bagdad for Scandinavian, German, and Dutch media. Through her articles and live television coverage she reported on the events in Iraq before, during, and after the attacks by the American and British forces. But Seierstad was after a story far less obvious than the military invasion. From the moment she arrived in Baghdad Seierstad was determined to understand the modern secrets of an ancient place and to find out how the Iraqi people really live. In A Hundred and One Days , she introduces us to daily life under the constant threat of attack -- first from the Iraqi government and later from American bombs. Moving from the deafening silence of life under Hussein to the explosions that destroyed the power supply, the water supply, and security, Seierstad sets out to discover: What happens to people when the dam bursts? What do they choose to say when they can suddenly say what they like? What do they miss most when their world changes overnight? Displaying the novelist's eye and lyrical storytelling that have won her awards around the world, Seierstad here brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters to tell the stories we never see on the evening news. The only woman in the world to cover both the fall of Kabul in 2001 and the bombings of Baghdad in 2003, Ã?ne Seierstad has redefined war reporting with her mesmerizing book.

With Their Backs to the World

2006-11-07
 |  Biography & Autobiography
With Their Backs to the World

Author: Åsne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780786722433

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 416

View: 406

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From beloved international reporter Ã...ne Seierstad comes a remarkable exploration of the lives of ordinary Serbs under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic-during the dramatic events leading up to his fall, and finally in the troubled years that have followed. Seierstad traveled extensively through Serbia between 1999 and 2004, following the lives of people from across the political spectrum. Her moving and perceptive account follows nationalists, Titoists, Yugonostalgics, rock stars, fugitives, and poets. Seierstad brings her acclaimed attention to detail to bear on the lives of those whom she encounters in With Their Backs to the World, as she creates a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation made up of so many different-and often conflicting-hopes, dreams, and points of view.

Shadow City

2019-12-05
 |  Travel
Shadow City

Author: Taran Khan

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781473553507

Category: Travel

Page: 288

View: 864

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'A fabulous piece of writing . . . I recommend it unreservedly' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE 'A brilliant book' CHRISTINA LAMB, author of Farewell Kabul One of the first things I was told when I arrived in Kabul was never to walk... When journalist Taran Khan arrives in Kabul, she uncovers a place that defies her expectations. Her wanderings with other Kabulis reveal a fragile city in a state of flux: stricken by near-constant war, but flickering with the promise of peace; governed by age-old codes but experimenting with new modes of living. Her walks take her to the unvisited tombs of the dead, and to the land of the living - like the booksellers, archaeologists, film-makers and entrepreneurs who are remaking this 3,000-year-old city. And as NATO troops begin to withdraw from the country, Khan watches the cycle of transformation begin again. **Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award 2021** **Winner of the Tata Literature Live First Book Award for Non-Fiction 2020** 'Powerfully evocative' Kapka Kassabova 'A wonderful journey' Atiq Rahimi 'Khan illuminates Kabul's life-affirming humanity' TLS

With Their Backs To The World

2015-02-05
 |  History
With Their Backs To The World

Author: Asne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780349006949

Category: History

Page: 352

View: 208

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From the bestselling author of THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL comes a remarkable exploration of the lives of ordinary Serbs under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic-during the dramatic events leading up to his fall, and finally in the troubled years that have followed. Asne Seierstad traveled extensively through Serbia between 1999 and 2004, following the lives of people from across the political spectrum. Her moving and perceptive account follows nationalists, Titoists, Yugonostalgics, rock stars, fugitives and poets. Seierstad brings her acclaimed attention to detail to bear on the lives of those whom she encounters in With Their Backs to the World, as she creates a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation made up of so many different-and often conflicting-hopes, dreams, and points of view.

From Cape Town to Kabul

2016-04-15
 |  Political Science
From Cape Town to Kabul

Author: Penelope Andrews

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317132455

Category: Political Science

Page: 232

View: 447

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Using her experience of living under apartheid and witnessing its downfall and the subsequent creation of new governments in South Africa, the author examines and compares gender inequality in societies undergoing political and economic transformation. By applying this process of legal transformation as a paradigm, the author applies this model to Afghanistan. These two societies serve as counterpoints through which the book engages, in a nuanced and novel way, with the many broader issues that flow from the attempts in newly democratic societies to give effect to the promise of gender equality. Developing the idea of ’conditional interdependence’, the book suggests a new approach based on the communitarian values which underpin newly democratic societies and would allow women’s rights to gain momentum and reap greater benefits. Broad in its thematic approach, the book generates challenging and complex questions about the achievement of gender equality. It will be of interest to academics interested in gender and human rights, international and comparative law.

Women's Writing and Muslim Societies

2012-11-15
 |  Religion
Women's Writing and Muslim Societies

Author: Sharif Gemie

Publisher: University of Wales Press

ISBN: 9780708325414

Category: Religion

Page: 181

View: 429

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Women’s Writing and Muslim Societies looks at the rise in works concerning Muslim societies by both western and Muslim women – from pioneering female travellers like Freya Stark and Edith Wharton in the early twentieth century, whose accounts of the Orient were usually playful and humorous, to the present day and such works as Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran and Betty Mahmoody’s Not Without My Daughter, which present a radically different view of Muslim Societies marked by fear, hostility and even disgust. The author, Sharif Gemie, also considers a new range of female Muslim writers whose works suggest a variety of other perspectives that speak of difficult journeys, the problems of integration, identity crises and the changing nature of Muslim cultures; in the process, this volume examines varied journeys across cultural, political and religious borders, discussing the problems faced by female travellers, the problems of trans-cultural romances and the difficulties of constructing dialogue between enemy camps.

One of Us

2015-03-05
 |  History
One of Us

Author: Asne Seierstad

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9781405521918

Category: History

Page: 544

View: 529

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THE STORY OF ANDERS BREIVIK AND THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX FILM 22 JULY, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL On 22 July 2011 Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 of his fellow Norwegians in a terrorist atrocity that shocked the world. One of Us is the definitive account of the massacres and the subsequent trial. But more than that, it is the compelling story of Anders Breivik and a select group of his victims. As we follow the path to their inevitable collision, it becomes clear just what was lost in that one day. SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA NON-FICTION DAGGER 2015 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER