Asne Seierstad travelled to Afghanistan to find out about the conflicts and struggles that the country was facing, and stumbled across a bookseller. She asked if she could join his family and write about their history. She moved in with the family of thirteen and as an outsider and a woman could move freely between different members and follow different people's stories, about their lives living in Kabul during times of conflict and war.
Borrowed because it looked interesting.
Unfortunately i was disappointed with this book, and struggled to finish it. Firstly it wasn't as expected. From the blurb at the back you feel that as a bookseller he may have a passion for selling books and having hold of information that is forbidden. However it more focuses on his family and the appalling life they lead and he comes across as pompous and arrogant. One of the positives of this is you do find out about his family life and how woman are portrayed in this culture and you get a vivid descriptions of Afghan life.
Secondly I didn't like the writing style and found it did not flow very easily and many a time i was tempted to just give up on reading it. However i battled through just for the little snippets of stories from different family members, which kept it interesting. Although with such a large family it was hard to keep up with who was who in this book and just to go with the flow.
In conclusion i wouldn't bother to read this book, it was slightly disappointing.
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