Author picture

Patricia McArdle

Author of Farishta

1 Work 54 Members 4 Reviews

Works by Patricia McArdle

Farishta (2011) 54 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

There is no Common Knowledge data for this author yet. You can help.

Members

Reviews

Excellent! Vic found this book from a review on NPR.
 
Flagged
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.
 
Flagged
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.
 
Flagged
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)
½
 
Flagged
flashflood42 | 3 other reviews | Mar 16, 2013 |

Statistics

Works
1
Members
54
Popularity
#299,230
Rating
3.8
Reviews
4
ISBNs
4

Charts & Graphs