Books

The Swallows of Kabul

The Swallows of Kabul puts a human face on the horrors and repression of that war-torn country. It tells the story of two couples–Mohsen and Zunaira Ramat, born into the privileged classes of pre-Taliban Afghanistan, and the prison guard Atiq Shaukat and his wife Musarrat, raised in poverty and drawn into the jihad in hopes of bettering their lot in life.

Mohsen once hoped for a career as a diplomat, but now he aimlessly wanders the devastated streets of Kabul. On one such desultory excursion he comes upon the stoning of an adulteress and finds himself joining the frenzied crowd. The next day Zunaira, anxious to assuage her husband’s guilt and her own shock, capitulates to his pleas to accompany him to the marketplace, the first outing she has made in months. But the burqa she hides behind cannot protect them from the harassment of zealous Taliban soldiers, and their marriage, already frayed by Mohsen’s act of violence, collapses under the strain of new resentments and suspicions. The shadow of the Taliban darkens the lives of Atiq and Musarrat as well. Worn out by years of war and deprivation, Musarrat is slowly succumbing to an incurable illness and Atiq to despair, which corrodes his faith in the mullahs and threatens to destroy his soul…

Other Books

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan (2001)
Afghan Buzkashi: Power Games and Gamesmen (2000)
Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide (2005)
Afghanistan: A Modern History (2005)
Afghanistan Aid, Armies & Empires (2009)
Afghanistan: From Holy War to Civil War (1995)
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul (2008)
Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx and Mujahid (2000)
Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan Field (2009)
Earth and Ashes (2003)
Empires of Mud: Wars and Warlords in Afghanistan (2009)
Encyclopaedia of Afghanistan (2002)
Fragmentation of Afghanistan (2002)
Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (1998)
Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007 (2007)
Meena: Heroine of Afghanistan (2004)
Modern Afghanistan (2004)
Monuments of Afghanistan (2008)
Organisations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond (2010)
Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present (2005)
The Afghanistan Wars (2009)
The Bookseller of Kabul (2004)
The Kite Runner (2003)
The Patience Stone (2010)
The Places in Between (2004)
The Road to Oxiana (1937)
The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan (2002)
The Swallows of Kabul (2005)
West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story (2002)