Cover of A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear

A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear

Farhad is a typical student, interested in wine, women and poetry, and negligent of the religious conservatism of his grandfather. But one night changes all that. It is 1979 and Afghanistan is in the early days of the pro-Soviet coup. Farhad goes out drinking with a friend who is about to flee to Pakistan. A few hours later he regains consciousness in a strange house, beaten and confused. At first he thinks he is dead. Then he begins to remember what happened. As his mind sifts through its memories, fears and hallucinations, and the outlines of reality start to harden, he realises that, if he is to escape the soldiers who wish to finish the job they started, he too must leave everything he loves behind him and find a way to get to Pakistan.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 208 pages

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Liked A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Wasted Vigil Shares Afghanistan, fiction, Middle East
  2. The Last Kestrel Shares Afghanistan, Middle East, fiction
  3. Born Under a Million Shadows Shares Afghanistan, Middle East, fiction
  4. The Union Jack Shares around the world, fiction, literature

“People who read A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom
  2. Let It Be Morning
  3. Rodin's Debutante
  4. The Butcher's Wife

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about travel), start with these.”

  1. Farishta
  2. A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan
  3. Koran, Kalashnikov, and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan
  4. Fear of Beauty

“If it was the Afghanistan that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The End of Manners
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  3. Kabul
  4. What Changes Everything

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. This Is How It Ends
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  3. The Second Man
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