Afghanistan
Stars Fiction and Nonfiction Titles
Annotations are from Advance, the
Ingram
Book Magazine, unless noted.
Fiction
- The Warlord's Son
Author: Fesperman, Dan
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414738 Date: 2004
PW
In this electrifying thriller set in present-day Afghanistan, the fates of
an American journalist and his Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined
with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests.
Updated 8.16.04
- Legacy of Love
Author: Trollope, Joanna
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670891819 Date: 2000
Booklist
Trollope's second Caroline Harvey historical novel traces
the lives and loves of three generations of strong, adventurous
women.
Suggested Reading: Historical
Fiction Stars
Updated 10/10/00
- The Mulberry Empire
Author: Hensher, Philip
Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375414886 Date: 2002
Kirkus
Booklist
Spanning a decade and moving between London and Calcutta, The Mulberry
Empire explores the doomed 1839 mission of some 50,000 forces of the
British Empire as they entered Afghanistan to overthrow a hostile amir.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Stars
| First Fiction Debuts | Biographical
Fiction
Updated 9.7.02
- The Kite Runner
Author: Hosseini, Khaled
Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222453 Date: 2003
Library Journal
Kirkus
PW
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, takes readers
from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the
present. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner
is an unusual and powerful debut.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction
& Mystery Debuts | All Stars
Updated 5.12.03
- The Swallows
of Kabul
Author: Khadra, Yasmina
Publisher: Doubleday $ 18.95 ISBN: 0385510012 Date: 2004
PW
Booklist
The extraordinary bestselling novel from France, set in Kabul, this is a stunning
portrait of life under the Taliban.
Updated 2.5.04
Nonfiction
- Come Back to Afghanistan
Author: Akbar, Said Hyder
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582345201 Date: 2005
Kirkus
LJ
Building on two acclaimed radio documentaries aired on "This American Life," this intimate and riveting chronicle is delivered by an extraordinarily courageous Afghan-American teenager coming of age in post 9/11 Afghanistan.
Updated 11.23.05
- The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan
Author: Anderson, Jon Lee
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117236 Date: 2002
Kirkus
Two weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, correspondent and
bestselling author Anderson became one of the first Western journalists
to get into Afghanistan. Distinguished by his gritty, on-the-ground observations,
probing interviews, and gift for telling a story, The
Lion's Grave is war
reporting in the tradition of A.J. Liebling and Michael Herr.
Updated 11.30.04
- Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance
Author: Benard, Cheryl
Publisher: Broadway $ 23.95 ISBN: 0767913019 Date: 2002
Library Journal
An inside look at the women of RAWA, the underground Afghan women's organization
whose daring, clandestine activities are the only effective civil resistance
to the Taliban.
Updated 4.24.02
- Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
Author: Crile, George
Publisher: Atlantic $ 26 ISBN: 08711385489 Date: 2003
Booklist
PW
Charlie Wilson's War tells the story of what became the largest covert
operation in history--costing over $1 billion a year. Moving from the back
rooms of the Capitol, to secret chambers at Langley, to arms-dealer conventions,
to the Khyber Pass, this is a compulsively readable account of the inside
workings of the CIA.
Updated 11.30.04
- Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
by Elliot, Jason
Publisher: St Martins $ 30 ISBN: 0312274599 Date: 2001
PW
Part travelogue, part historical evocation, part personal quest, and
part reflection on the joys and perils of passage, An Unexpected
Light captures perfectly the emotional lure of a seldom-glimpsed
world. It is a poignant look at Afghanistan and a heartfelt reflection
on the experience of travel itself.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
- This Man's Army
Author: Exum, Andrew
Publisher: Gotham $ 25 ISBN: 1592400639 Date: 2004
Kirkus
Soldier X vividly brings to life his journey through ROTC training, the grueling
trials of the elite Ranger School, and into the treacherous terrain of the
Shah-e-Kot Valley in Afghanistan where he must confront and kill an Al Qaeda
fighter.
Link: ThisMansArmy.com
Updated 1.26.04
- The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan
Author: Macintyre, Ben
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374201781 Date: 2004
Kirkus
PW
In the year 1838, a young adventurer raised the American flag on the summit
of the Hindu Kush in the wilds of Afghanistan. Macintyre tells the astonishing
true story of Josiah Harlan, the first American ever to enter Afghanistan,
the man who would be the first and last American king.
Updated 2.10.04
- The Interrogators: Inside the Secret War Against Al Qaeda
Author: Mackey, Chris & Greg Miller
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316871125 Date: 2004
PW
Hogan and Miller--senior interrogator in Kandahar and a reporter with access
to the interrogations--offer an illuminating examination of the psychology
and physiology of lying and determining whether someone is telling the truth.
Updated 7.19.04
- Osama: The Making of a Terrorist
Author: Randal, Jonathan C.
Publisher: Knopf $ 26.95 ISBN: 0375409017 Date: 2004
Kirkus
PW
How is it possible for one middle-aged Saudi millionaire to threaten the
world's only superpower? This is the question at the center of Jonathan Randal's
riveting, timely account of Osama bin Laden's role in the rise of terrorism
in the Middle East. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 6.30.04
- The Bookseller of Kabul
Author: Seierstad, Asne
Publisher: Little Brown $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316764500 Date: 2003
Kirkus
PW
Invited to live with a Kabul bookseller and his family for several months,
an award-winning journalist now gives readers a first-hand look at Afghani
life as few outsiders have seen it.
Suggested Reading: Travel
Tales
Updated 10.2.03
- The Storyteller's Daughter
Author: Shah, Saira
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375145319 Date: 2003
Kirkus
The freelance journalist who filmed Beneath the Veil offers a startling
memoir of how her life was shaped by two dramatically disparate worlds. This
is Saira, part sophisticated and sensitive Western liberal, part fearless,
life-gulping Afghan, falling in love with her ancestral myth, chasing Afghanistan.
Updated 10.2.03