Asne Seierstad
The Bookseller of Kabul (2003)
Author: Asne Seierstad (translated by Ingrid Christopherson)
Genre: Nonfiction (Inside Encounter)
Book Summary:
Asne Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist, spent several months in 2002 living with the bookseller Sultan Khan’s family in Kabul. Although Khan is progressive in terms of bookselling, publishing, and business, he is a strict Muslim patriarch. The conflicts in the Khan family take place after the Taliban’s flight, when Afghans begin to shed the strictures of the Taliban. The Khans struggle to balance new freedoms with the internalized morality left over from the ultra-orthodox regime. Sultan has taken a second wife, angering his first wife. His son Mansur struggles to go his own way (morally and geographically) without angering his father. His female relatives must serve and obey him, especially his youngest sister who tries unsuccessfully to register as a teacher so she can work outside the house. A brief episode with a distant cousin of Sultan Khan translating for an American journalist illustrates continuing tribal warfare at the time when Kabul and other cities are trying to return to “normal.”
Geographical Setting: Kabul, Afghanistan (some episodes in Pakistan and the Afghan countryside)
Time Period: Spring 2002
Appeal Characteristics:
This book is intended for people who want to read about real people who are living their lives in places we usually hear about only on the news. Hovering near “Planet Bookscape’s” equator in the nonfiction hemisphere, Seierstad’s account of several months of an Afghan family’s life is subjective and fictionalized. Seierstad plays no part in the narrative at all. She interviewed and observed the extended family and tells their stories (complete with internal dialogue and appealing to the reader’s emotions) based on what they told her, as though through an omniscient narrator. This is basically a series of interconnected anecdotes, so chapters are short, and it’s a quick read because each episode is topical. There is very little action or suspense. The characters seem stereotypical for real people, but if this were fiction they’d be considered well-developed. The author uses a literary style, but it is not densely written, so the reading level is accessible. Women’s roles in Muslim households are discussed at length. Religion, faith, and orthodoxy are illustrated at the personal level. Recent Afghan history is recounted and events are placed in historical context. The same family conflicts could be set in any city rebuilding itself after decades of war, but the contemporary relevance of Afghanistan makes the setting a major appeal element. No illustrations.
Red Flags: Inappropriate for those looking for factual treatment of contemporary Afghanistan. Seierstad’s biases are clearly stated in the foreword, but she is definitely a biased narrator. Violence toward women is not encouraged by the author, but it is accepted as a part of life in the narrative.
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