Kabul

Filled with remarkable historical detail and compelling drama, Kabul is rife with intrigue and combines concentrated political insights with a dramatic look at one family, the Anwari's, as they are caught-up in an electrifying and potentially lethal state of affairs, following the 1973 overthrow of the last Afghan King. We are given a front row seat to the churning turmoil fermenting within the Anwari family as each of the three children, Mangal, Tor & Saira, pursues their individual political beliefs and destinies. The family Anwari could be seen as a metaphor for the country of Afghanistan itself, with its many diverse dissenting factions, each seeking to expand their power and bring about social and political change. The destiny of the family and their beloved country are enexorably joined as both battle to survive subjugation by Russian invaders who are attempting to turn Afghanistan and it's inhabitants into a Communist satellite and claim its riches for their own. This book manages to maintain the basics of historical accuracy while capturing the personalities and philosophies of its many characters, both real and imagined, and blends all of these elements so seamlessly that it is difficult to distinguish what is real and what is a figment of the authors imagination. With the tumult of the 70's that wreaked havoc on this country, one can understand how the Taliban could use this mismanaged mess to get a foothold in the Middle-East.

This terrific novel about Afghanistan in the 1970s makes "The Kite Runner" seem plodding and shallow. It is a family saga with its own "spoiled prince" character, full of political intrigue in the years leading up to the Soviet invasion, and its closing chapters involve not one but two daring rescue missions. The scope of this 440+ page novel is as far ranging and ambitious as Boris Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago." The fortunes and fate of the well-to-do Anwari family are linked to the rise and fall of governments in Kabul, and the country itself is portrayed in the grip of revolutionary conflict and in an international context involving its neighbors, the US, and the USSR. Meanwhile, there are weddings, love affairs, sibling rivalries, conflicts between parents and children, babies born, illness and death, mixed loyalties, hopes, fears, disappointments, the entire gamut of the human drama. This intricately plotted novel weaves together a host of story threads and shifting points of view among characters that deepen their emotional and psychological reality. Dialogues between them are elegant and sharp witted as they jockey for advantage with each other while reaching at the same time for any feelings that would lessen their vulnerability. Don't let the burqas on the cover mislead you. The women in this novel are strong and independent, and their struggle to remain so represents the birth pangs of an ancient civilization on the verge of the modern age. Hirsch has written one heck of a novel, and it deserves an audience that yearns to know more about the country and the culture that for decades has continued to withstand the destructive forces of civil strife and international conflict.

By using vivid characterization and clever prose, Hirsh prompts readers to explore how world politics, family relationships, and individual duty are intertwined -- not only in the frame of the novel, but in their own lives, as well. The novel provides a fascinating perspective on Afghanistan, and illustrates the need for passive observers to cross the boundary separating basic knowledge of current events and deep understanding of the causes behind them.

'Kabul' opens at the end of what the New York Times has called the Golden Age of Afghanistan, when Kabul was a sophisticated international capital with a co-ed university drawing faculty from around the world. It follows one prominent half-American family caught up in events from the end of the monarchy until the Soviet invasion, which set the stage for 22 years of war and international abandonment, and ultimately the rise of the Taliban. This portrait of Afghanistan's not-too-distant past explores the tensions that came to polarize the country.

'Kabul'is a great read on several levels. I read this book when it came out in 1986 and then again recently. In the eighties, at the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, I found it to be a great story with compelling characters and a window on an exotic country that I knew absolutely nothing about. Now, in 2001, I have reread it and absorbed far more about the tumultuous and confusing political situation that brought Afghanistan into the situation in which we see it today. 'Kabul' features the half-American family of a minister to former King Zahir Shah. The eldest son is a journalist later turned rebel leader. The daughter of the family is American educated. We see her life in the the U.S., tormented by political and familial loyalties and contrasted against the lives of her women friends back home. The youngest son is educated in Moscow and we see him evolve from a spoiled rich kid into a passionate and patriotic man. Issues of tribal loyalties and boundary disputes that I am reading about in the news every day are much more understandable to me after reading this book. I literally made a check list of the many conflicts Hirsh dramatizes so effectively in fiction that are now playing out on the world stage. It is fortunate that this book has been reissued in paperback right now. Its time has definitely come!