Patricia McArdle
Author of Farishta
1 Work 54 Members 4 Reviews
Works by Patricia McArdle
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state department officical is assigned duty in Afghanistan at a remote northern post with only men (British soldiers) She is to find out if the interpreters are correct in their translations of Dari to English and to use her position to advise politically (1)
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Women diplomats -- Fiction; Americans -- Afghanistan -- Fiction; Loss (Psychology) -- Fiction; Afghanistan -- Fiction. (1)
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Reviews
Farishta by Patricia McArdle
Excellent! Vic found this book from a review on NPR.
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SueWyman | 3 other reviews | Feb 19, 2021 | While reading you wondered how much was really about her experiences and how much was dramatized. It was an interesting perspective of that part of the world.
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kshydog | 3 other reviews | Dec 13, 2020 | An American diplomat is pulled back into an unresolved past on her assignment in Afghanistan. McArdle accurately depicts the exotic, but chaotic Middle East. Despite Farishta fast pace, the prose is compelling, and touching. A beautiful read.
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LiterarySparks | 3 other reviews | Nov 16, 2016 | Although the writing is not sublime, this book is fascinating for what it shows about women's role in the military and in the Afghan society. The protagonist Angela (Farishta in Dari) is a diplomat who having suffered a traumatic loss of her husband in a Beirut bombing years earlier and, when assigned to a PRT in northern Afghanistan, has this one last chance to pull herself and her life together. Many of the characters seem like ones I've read about before: Nilofar, an Afghan Hazari girl who works to prevent marriages of 12 year olds to brutal 50 year old men and who is, in turn attacked; Rahim, the intelligent interpreter who falls in love with Nilofar even though he is from a different tribe, Angela's emerging love affair with the young officer who initially rejects having anything to do with a female diplomat, the devious Machievelian Russian diplomat-seducer, and even the impulsive Angela who is willing to go unattended to help women learn to use the solar ovens she makes. The plot and the characters are not new and yet I still learned about Afghanistan--its past (through archeologists), its ruined present (the eroded landscape bare of any trees--the one tree visible chopped down before the end--, the control of the warlords who are far more important than any troops whether they be Swedes, English, Dutch, or Germans. I learned that the British approach (do as little harm as possible and tread lightly) is far superior to any other.… (more)
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flashflood42 | 3 other reviews | Mar 16, 2013 | Statistics
- Works
- 1
- Members
- 54
- Popularity
- #299,230
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 4