The Bookseller of Kabul

About “The Bookseller of Kabul”

Two weeks after September 11th, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad traveled to Afghanistan to report on the conflict. The following spring, she spent several months living with an Afghan family. Sultan Khan, a bookseller, had spent over twenty years supplying books to Kabul despite facing arrest and imprisonment under communist rule and witnessing Taliban soldiers burn his books. He hid his stock in attics to avoid destruction. Khan was a devout Muslim with strict views on family life. As an outsider, Seierstad observed both the private lives of the women, including Khan's two wives, and the public lives of the men. Her account reveals stories of marriage, power, abuse, and justice. The book offers a powerful portrait of a family and an insightful look at a country trying to escape its past.