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Books » The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad - Book Review
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad - Book Review
by Asne Seierstad
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Review by
 Elspeth(408) on 23/03/2004
Norwegian journalist Seierstad lived with a bookseller and his family in Kabul in the spring following the fall of the Taliban. It's a fascinating insight into an alien culture and I've never been more grateful that I was born in Britain.
It's not only the women who are repressed in ways we've become familiar with through the news. The young men also long for freedom; 12 yr old Aimal is desperate to go to school but he has to work 12 hrs a day for his father. He has a vitamin D deficiency as he never gets to play outdoors.
Sultan, the Bookseller, is a good man and well educated, whose life's work is to preserve the books, history and culture of Afghanistan before the endless wars destroy it forever. But he's a hard man to like.
Seierstad cleverly writes herself out of the picture, telling the family's story in the third person and incorporating their emotions and inner thoughts from what they have told her.
A book that truly made me count my blessings.
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 Comments by other Members
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Posted by :
 Anna Reynolds at 19:05 on 23 March 2004
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Mmm... for once, a review that's made me go straight to the Amazon button and buy this. Partly because I like the idea of a fairly central character who is hard to like.
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Posted by :
Elspeth at 11:00 on 24 March 2004
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Glad you're giving it a look Anna. Sultan is an interesting character because he's so passionate about literature and language - like many people on this site - and yet his attitudes to everything else couldn't be more different.
Enjoy!
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Posted by :
Anna Reynolds at 17:45 on 10 April 2004
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For some bizarre reason, I've started this half way through, and am now going back to the beginning and secretly enjoying it (if that's the right word, some of the descriptions of life under the Taliban are truly stomach-churning) so much I don't mind. Sultan is a pleasingly complex character, who makes us examine our judgements about him. Good one for writers to read I think.
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