The Seierstad, Asne 1970- creator text biography nyu New York Back Bay Books/Little, Brown 2004 1st Back Bay pbk. ed. monographic eng nor

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xvi, 288, 9 p. ; 21 cm. From the Publisher: With The Bookseller of Kabul, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad has given readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Invited to live with Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, and his family for months, this account of her experience allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions. For more than 20 years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities-whether Communist or Taliban-to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he had persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places. This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family-two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room house in this war ravaged city. But more than that, it is a rare look at contemporary life under Islam, where even after the Taliban's collapse, the women must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn and communicate with others. Foreword -- Proposal -- Burning books -- Crime and punishment -- Suicide and song -- Business trip -- Do you want to make me sad? -- No admission to heaven -- Billowing, fluttering, winding -- Third-rate wedding -- Matriarch -- Temptations -- Call from Ali -- Smell of dust -- Attempt -- Can God die? -- Dreary room -- Carpenter -- My mother Osama -- Broken heart -- Epilogue. Asne Seierstad ; translated by Ingrid Christophersen. Includes a reading group guide. a-af--- Seierstad, Asne 1970- Travel Afghanistan Kabul Khan family Booksellers and bookselling Afghanistan Kabul Kabul (Afghanistan) Biography Kabul (Afghanistan) Social life and customs 0316159417 9780316159418 2006274444 060419 20181127161732.0 611