The Bookseller of Kabul

It’s a good read but def could’ve been more interesting

Author Ånne Seierstad, intrigued by bookseller Sultan Khan, easily convinces the wealthy man to allow her to write a book about him and his family, even though it will require her to live with them in close-quarters for several months. The many things she sees, hears, experiences and learns about the life of the Khans during her stay in the spring of 2002 are contained within this smallish book. Subjects that might be thought of as potentially off-limits to foreigners: polygamy, family squabbles, justice, education, burkas, books are included. Patriarch Khan takes a second (young) wife: readers learn about the marriage negotiations and proposal, her treatment by Sultan and his family members, and the feelings of the first wife. Goings-on related to those under his thumb, especially his children and siblings, are described, as are the ever-futile attempts of several family members to strike out on their own. In his role as a merchant, who, rightfully as the first-born son, lords over his kin, he sometimes seems heroic, progressive, intelligent; however, as a father, brother, son, he is intolerant, selfish, uncompromising. Men and boys, held in high regard, lord over the women. Seierstad also sheds much light on the plight of women. A great chapter, Billowing, Fluttering, Winding, follows a group of nondescript, burka-clad women's shopping trip to an outdoor market. Also good: Zinky Boys by Svetlana Alexievich, The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

In November 2001, after the fall of the Taliban, the Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad befriended a bookseller in Kabul who invited her to his home for dinner. Before long they agreed for her to live in Sultan Khan's home for three months in order to write a book about about his family. The Bookseller of Kabul, an international bestseller translated into thirty languages, and the most successful nonfiction book in Norwegian history, chronicles Seierstad's first person narrative about her experiences of Afghan gender roles, education, politics, religion, and culture. At first Seierstad thought she had met a remarkably liberated Afghan man. Sultan was an ardent bibliophile who loved books and ideas. In a country where three-quarters of the population is illiterate, he had amassed a collection of 10,000 books, including rare manuscripts, that he had squirreled away around town. He survived the Soviet communists and the Islamic fundamentalists, and spent time in jail for anti-Islamic behavior. He despised the Taliban who burned his books. His family was wealthy by local standards, his opinions about women appeared liberal, he bought his wife western clothes in Iran, and derided the burka as a symbol of his beloved country's backwardness and oppression. At home Seierstad discovered an altogether different Sultan, and for the most part her narrative reads like a cultural expose. She begins by telling the story of how Sultan took sixteen-year-old Sonya as his second wife, much to the grief of his first wife Sharifa. At home Sultan was an unapologetic tyrant toward everyone in his family. His two wives and daughters slaved away at cooking and cleaning. He consigned his twelve-year-old son to sell candy in a dark and dank stall that he called "the dreary room." When a poor carpenter stole some post cards from his shop to feed his seven children, Sultan was merciless. The book alternates between describing the particular abuse in Sultan's home, and that in broader Afghan culture. A first-grader, for example, learns the alphabet by memorizing the following: "I is for Israel, our enemy; J is for Jihad, our aim in life; K is for Kalishnikov, we will overcome; . . . M is for Mujahedeen, our heroes; . . . T is for Taliban. . . " The Bookseller of Kabul captures everyday life in a country ravaged by twenty years of war and characterized by deep cultural conservatism. In an ironic postscript to the book's wild success, Sultan has sued Seierstad and her publisher for libel in a Norwegian court. He insists that his hospitality was abused, his personal life was slandered, and that his family has been endangered, so he has, in good western fashion, demanded what his lawyer has called "redress and compensation."

I was very impressed with this book. It was an easy read but showed so much of Afghan culture. While at times I felt angry it also gave me a hunger to learn more about this intriguing country. I felt the author gave an excellent recounting of what she had seen and heard. Unlike some of the other reviewers I did not feel that she was attacking Sultan Khan personally. She was merely showing the society that he was raised in and how this has shaped how he handles his family and the people around him. This book made me angry, laugh, cry and most of all made me grateful for the freedoms I have as a woman in western society.

This book details the daily life of a middle-class family in Kabul, the family of Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul. Sultan has lived through several represive regimes, all of which burned and censored his beloved books. Now with the Taliban gone, he is free to pursue his business and his dreams of turning his large collection into a library for Afghanistan.However, this story isn't all roses and sunshine. The dark secret of his family (and of many others in the region) is the horrible mistreatment of the women in his family. The lives of women are completely controlled by men in his society. The women have to wera very restrictive clothing even after the fall of the Taliban. They can't leave home by themselves and they have no say in who they marry. They often have to marry men many years older than they are. In one situation, a girl secretly spent 30 minutes alone with a boy just walking in the park. As a result, she was severely beaten almost to the point of death, and she was locked in a room for more than a month. After reading this book, you'll cry for the women in Afghanistan. It's a little heavy, but I recommend this book for everyone, and especially for those who are concerned about the well-being of women around the world.