(Unfortunately, the translation is rather clunky). Afghanistan has been ravaged by the long war with the Soviets, rendering the countryside barren. The novel traces the intersection of lives destroyed by the Taliban. It’s not possible to explain why without spoilers, so please don’t read on if you intend to read this book. Perhaps I have misinterpreted it, but I felt that the ‘love story’ was the author’s sick fantasy. Unlike the New York Times Book Review, I didn’t find it ‘surprisingly tender’, not at all. There were no redeeming features, and this portrayal was so extreme, it left me feeling soiled, as if I had been reading propaganda designed not to justify the war in Afghanistan but to make the reader wonder why anyone would want to help them if indeed these horrible characters were representative. It was a very bleak portrayal of Afghan life under the Taliban.
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