A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan

I left Afghanistan in 1979, a week before the Russians invaded and from that year on lost touch with everything that went on in my beautiful country. Nelofer's Bed of Red Flowers brought to life those years that I missed out on and always thought I will never know about; thank you so much Nelofer for this outstanding and vivid accounts of your life in Afghanistan, now I know how life was after I left.

A very good read. This is a true story that begins in Afghanistan in the mid seventies. It follows the members of an upper middle class family as they struggle to survive in their homeland; survive, despite a series of ever increasingly ruthless dictators, the Russian invasion and finally the Taliban. This book is beautifully written and easy to read; it has a wonderful descriptive quality to it that has the ability to provoke strong emotions. The book was hard to put down; I found myself wanting to read "just on more page, one more chapter". This story has an universal theme; it could be viewed as a testament to all common, oppressed people anywhere; people who'd like nothing more than to live in peace, but are prevented from doing so (through no fault of their own), because they get caught up in events caused by the ever changing whims of the "dictator de jour." Highly recommended. 5 Stars.

We first became interested in Nelofer Pazira's work after seeing the powerful movie Kandahar, in which she played the lead role. At a time of facile generalisations and stereotypes about the Islamic world, this excellent and moving book gives us the Afghani women's perspective in all its complexity. Despite everything that has happened you emerge with a sense of the triumph of the human spirit.

This is one of the most eloquent books I have read in a while. Nelofer succeeds in writing about the tragic topic of Afghanistan with much grace and insight. I found her perspectives to be thought-provoking and refreshing on the subject of Afghanistan: it's wars, it's people and it's history. One of the best books I have read in a long, long time.

Nelofer Pazira was raised in an Afghan home during turbulent times. Her father was a doctor who had been raised in poverty; her mother a university educated teacher from a wealthy family. They dressed in European styles and could have enjoyed a wonderful, privileged, peaceful life were it not for the place they were born and the times they lived in. Nelofer's story of growing up in Afghanistan is riveting. Time and again, I would re-read a paragraph absolutely astonished that this beautiful woman lived this life and suffered through these horrors and yet can tell this story with beauty and clarity and grace. She tells of visiting her father in prison at a young age, a scene that strengthened her resolve and planted a seed of strength in this young girl. I was moved learning from her what it was like living in a country divided by war and terror during the Russian invasion. Her attempts to fight the Communists by joining revolutionary resistant groups and the story of her family's eventual escape to Canada via Pakistan are gripping. Her eye for detail and her incredible grasp of the conflicting power struggles of Communism, the Taliban, the U.S., and the succession of various leaders of the country show a depth of intelligence and courage few can aspire to. Nelofer is a woman of substance who we can learn much from, and I think we will hear more from her in the future. The parallel threads that she weaves, or that I read into this story of life in a country at war and the hatred felt by the people in that country for the invaders sent chills down my spine since there are Nelofers right now within Iraq - living a life much like hers yet in this case we are the invaders. Nelofer continues the story by returning to Afghanistan to try to find her lost friend Dyana as well as traveling to Russia to interview the men who invaded her country - fascinating and remarkable.