A deeply informative tale of a nation’s history, told through the eyes of an uncommon woman.
An ambitious debut novel focuses on the sufferings and struggles of an Afghan woman and her family in a time of war.
The little village of Jabal os Siraj, deep in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, has—like all of the country—been forced to rebuild itself again and again after repeated invasions across thousands of years of imperial wars. The history of this fictionalized valley and the nation that surrounds it is the subject of this story by author and women’s rights activist Rehman (Car Grease for the Camel: A Road Journey Across Afghanistan, 2006). Here we meet Gullali Haider, a bright-eyed and bighearted girl who falls in love, fights to marry the man of her choice, and learns the hard way that “nothing is more threatening to the Taliban than an educated woman.” Gullali grows up in a village where women “do not expose their legs for fear of gunfights” and where, “for men, a handgun or a rifle is a standard jewel.” After a misadventure involving a firearm ruins her wedding and her new husband’s orchard is bombed into ashes, Gullali hits the road to try to find her fortune in a region where blood flows freely in the streets. Throughout the course of her travels and traumas, the history of her homeland is recounted to the reader in some detail, sometimes by the author himself (in the form of chapterlong monologues about Afghanistan’s racial makeup, for example, or about the Russian invasion of 1979) and sometimes in the form of lectures by Gullali’s father, a former Kandahar professor and healthy skeptic of Islamic fundamentalism. By the time the last page is turned, readers should have a fine understanding of why it is impossible, as one character laments, “to pull this country out of antiquity.” Such history lessons, though excellent in themselves, tend to pull the reader away from the emotional center of the story and occupy space Rehman might have used to deepen readers’ understanding of his characters. But this is a small complaint. Otherwise, readers interested to know why America had (and continues to have) such trouble in this far-off place—and what the real people who live in the midst of all that turmoil are really like—would be well-advised to pick up a copy.
A deeply informative tale of a nation’s history, told through the eyes of an uncommon woman.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9861599-0-9
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Ursa Major LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
