Cover of Kabul

Kabul

Modern events sometime demand the reissue of a book published several years ago. Hirsh's internationally acclaimed 1986 novel, Kabul, provides an almost miraculous window into a country and its people that now have captured the world's attention.

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When the last Afghan king is deposed in the summer of 1973, the family of Omar Anwari, his loyal cabinet minister, is torn apart along with their country. Over seven turbulent years while Catherine, their American mother, struggles to hold them together, Mangal, the eldest son, breaks with his father to follow his own political conscience; daughter Saira in New York is torn between two cultures; and Tor, the youngest, most passionate of the three grows up to become perhaps the bravest of them all.

An epic tale of civil war, political intrigue, and family tragedy, Kabulis a moving, insightful portrayal of a proud nation brought to chaos.

Audience
adult

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Liked Kabul? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Kabul. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Wasted Vigil Shares Afghanistan, fiction, Middle East
  2. Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan Shares Afghanistan, Middle East
  3. The Last Kestrel Shares Afghanistan, Middle East, fiction
  4. A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear Shares Afghanistan, fiction, Middle East

“People who read Kabul tend to reach for these next.”

  1. In the Name of God
  2. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan: The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
  3. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
  4. The Gigolo Murder

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Farishta
  2. Born Under a Million Shadows
  3. The Last Thousand: One School's Promise in a Nation at War
  4. Fear of Beauty

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

  1. Swallows of Kabul
  2. The End of Manners
  3. Killing the Cranes: A Reporter's Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan
  4. Taliban

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

  1. Tempestuous Eden
  2. Bone China
  3. America's First Daughter
  4. In the Face of Death