Review for the Audio CD (Abridged : 7hrs)

I found this book absolutely fascinating. According to the introduction Åsne Seierstad was invited into the Khan household (names changed by the author) to live as one of the family and write a book about their day to day lives.
Autocratic Sultan Khan ruled with an iron rod; no-one dared oppose him for fear of being excommunicated from the family. Below him were his sons and below them his wives (2) and daughters. The lowest of the low was poor Laila, 19yrs old, his youngest sister, who worked from before dawn until after dusk as little more than a slave to the rest of the family.
The book provides a good background to political events in Afghanistan and an excellent feel for the life of many in the war torn capital. It reminded me of Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, a similarly hiereachical family in Egypt in the early 20th Century.

Wikipedia states that the true Bookseller of Kabul has taken Seierstad to court over the content of her book. He claims that in spite of changing his and his families' names it is quite obvious who they are and his life has become intolerable since its publication. Apparently he has now written his own book but as yet it is not translated into English. That is one book I'd certainly read if it becomes available.

My audio version was read by Emilia Fox whose slight accent was entirely appropriate to the subject matter and whose voice was clear throughout. Her variety of 'voices' was a little limited but I'm more than happy to forgive this minor failing as it did not detract at all from this book.
At some future point I shall certainly read this in book version to fill in what I missed in my abridged audio CD.

In the interests of democratic reportage I am editing this review to provide the link to the bookseller's response to this book:
http://www.kabulguide.net/kbl-booksel...

Your Tags: Afghanistan, Richard and Judy ( )

the sad truth.. ( )

The title is completely misleading. I thought this was going to be a true story about a book seller in Afghanistan. Instead it is a true account of how a white woman from a first world country interprets/views the lives of the booksellers family members. It was interesting from a cultural education perspective, but dull beyond that. ( )

Forfatteren bor hos storfamilien Khan i Kabul, Afghanistan, etter terrorbombingen i New York. Hun tar utgangspunkt i familien, og skildrer landets skjebne, historie og drømmer. Ved hjelp av familieportretter får vi høre om frieri, giftemål, undertrykking, maktmisbruk, forbrytelse og straff. Vi får også høre om hverdagen i Kabul, og ikke minst menneskene som lever der.

Jeg husker at jeg synes det var en fin bok som gav meg kunnskaper om landet og dets historie og folk. Jeg kan absolutt anbefale den, men i og med at det er en stund siden jeg leste den, husker jeg ikke helt inntrykket jeg fikk da jeg var ferdig med den. ( )

a must read!!! ( )