Enjeela Ahmadi-miller

Ms. Ahmadi-Miller was a young girl in Kabul, Afghanistan when her close-knit family was scattered by the war, and she and some of her siblings endured a grueling, harrowing escape. The memoir is written almost as if told by the child at the point where the family is about to embark on a new life in America, so vivid and rich in detail and texture are the descriptions, that it is hard to believe this book was published decades after the events it recounts. Informative, eye-opening, and show more beautifully written. show less

The Broken Circle is the memoir of a young girl escaping Afghanistan in the early 1980s. Enjeela was a child of rich parents. Her father worked at the American embassy. Despite living a comfortable life, they were forced to flee Afghanistan when the Russians suspected that their father was spying for the United States (and when he refused to spy for them). They began a journey on foot to leave the country and try to reunite with their mother in India who had left before the war for medical show more procedures. While they went through some hard times and experienced pain and hunger, they were fortunate that they had the money and means to assist in their journey. This did not mean that they did not suffer, it was just a different experience than the poorer refugees that escaped the war and it was a different experience than I am used to reading about.

The story was told from the point of view of the young Enjeela. While this put the reader in the girl's shoes and let us see how the experience changed her, it also kept things at a surface level. The child did not always understand what was going on and was living in the moment so the reader did not get the fuller details about conflict in Afghanistan. The book did give me an appreciation for the migrants seeking asylum at the southern border. As I read about the attempts of Enjeela's family to cross the border to India illegally to reach their mother, I thought about the people in similar situations trying to reach loved ones and safety in the United States. show less

This is a touching memoir, told by the author about her young life in pre-Soviet invasion Afghanistan and her lengthy, difficult trek to safety and security. It seems simply told, but it is told from the perspective of such a young girl learning the cruelties of this world. I found it very hard to put down, hoping so hard that the girl would find happiness again.

This memoir documented the family's escape from Afghanistan, it was well written and brought the tragedy of Afghanistan continued turmoil into shape focus. It is lucky that the family was rich enough to sustain the up and down of their escape. I also felt that the family was incredibly lucky to have all the people that can help them along the way.