The Bookseller Of Kabul
The International Bestseller - 'An intimate portrait of Afghani people quite unlike any other' SUNDAY TIMES
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Beschreibung des Verlags
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
'An intimate portrait of Afghani people quite unlike any other . . . compelling' CHRISTINA LAMB, SUNDAY TIMES
For more than twenty years Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, defied the authorities - be they communist or Taliban - to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the communists and watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. A committed Muslim, Khan is passionate in his love of books and hatred of censorship.
Two weeks after September 11th, award-winning journalist Åsne Seierstad went to Afghanistan to report on the conflict there and the year after she lived with an Afghan family for several months. We learn of proposals and marriages, suppression and abuse of power, crime and punishment. The result is a gripping and moving portrait of a family, and a clear-eyed assessment of a country struggling to free itself from history.
'Fascinating . . . A portrait of people struggling to survive in the most brutal circumstances' DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Turkey, one of a handful of countries with a foot on two continents and often billed as the only Muslim democracy (although its constitution claims to be secular and the military has deposed elected governments) is a land full of paradox. While a Marxist atheist (Yurdatapan) and a devout Muslim (Dilipak) might disagree on the eternal, the repressive policies of the present Turkish government applied symmetrically to the left and the right have made strange bookfellows. Yurdatapan and Dilipak have co-written a book whose cover promises they will "agree to disagree in the spirit of human rights and freedom of expression." Originally published in Turkey despite censorship attempts, its new English edition will be rather undramatically preaching to the choir. Most English-speaking readers will take for granted the civil liberties these authors are crying out for, but will perhaps be surprised to learn the ugly details of Turkey's thought police: Dilipak and Yurdatapan met in a Turkish jail, where they were imprisoned for publishing ideas the government found unacceptable. While the book's unusual cross-referenced format may deter some readers, it does highlight the dialogue nature of the effort. The authors' grudging and poignant union is captured well when Dilipak says, "When Sanar dies, if he dies in his present lack of faith, I shall not attend his funeral.... Still, we are together in the fight against the criminalization of thought."
