Enduring Freedom
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
This powerful novel set in the tumultuous times surrounding 9/11 follows a teenage American army private and an Afghan boy living under the Taliban as they discover they have much more in common than they ever could have imagined.
Baheer, a studious Afghan teen, sees his family’s life turned upside down when they lose their livelihood as war rocks the country.
A world away, Joe, a young American army private, has to put aside his dreams of becoming a journalist when he’s shipped out to Afghanistan.
When Joe’s unit arrives in Baheer’s town, Baheer is wary of the Americans, but sees an opportunity: Not only can he practice his English with the soldiers, his family can make money delivering their supplies. At first, Joe doesn’t trust Baheer, or any of the locals, but Baheer keeps showing up. As Joe and Baheer get to know each other, to see each other as individuals, they realize they have a lot more in common than they ever could have realized. But can they get past the deep differences in their lives and beliefs to become true friends and allies?
Enduring Freedom is a moving and enlightening novel about how ignorance can tear us apart and how education and understanding can bring us back together.
"Through Baheer, readers ages 12 and older will gain some understanding of life under the Taliban; of the concussive shock of 9/11 as felt in Central Asia; of Afghans’ varied responses to the American invasion; and most of all the transformative promise of schooling. Through Joe, an aspiring journalist, readers experience not only the throb of post-9/11 patriotism but also the tedium, camaraderie and sudden terrors of soldiery in a war zone." —The Wall Street Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This intensely personal wartime novel about the aftermath of 9/11 and Operation Enduring Freedom unfolds from two third-person perspectives. The narrative begins in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 10, 2001, as Afghan 16-year-old Baheer, whose large family values education, sells rugs, hides their radio from the Taliban, and learns that the Taliban have killed Ahmad Shah Massoud, "the last mujahedeen commander holding out against the Taliban." The next day, the family tries to make sense of the burning towers from a smuggled VHS tape of CNN, eventually moving to the countryside to avoid the coming conflict. In Iowa on 9/11, patriotic white high school senior Joe Killian, who enlisted in the National Guard for tuition, is shattered by the violence, filled with vengeance toward al-Qaeda. Two years later, he's summoned from the University of Iowa to Afghanistan. Initially, Joe resents his unit's peace mission to Baheer's town, and he and Baheer experience cultural stumbles and clashes, but soon a friendship grows. While narrative tension lags in parts, this thoughtful portrait of friendship and the human side of war, based on the authors' true story, proves engrossing. Ages 12–up.
