The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
This is a work of nonfiction, written by a Norwegian author. They spent four months staying in Afghanistan with an Afghani family after the Taliban fell. What I got from this book is that even though they live in the 21st century, Afghan people are still living in the dark ages, essentially.
I guess being a woman in the western world, reading about what these women deal with--not being able to go in public, find jobs, find a husband, everything really--just pissed me off. It aggravated me that women were dependent on men for everything. The book starts out with a guy wanting a second wife because his first wife was too old.
Sultan, the head of the family in this book, is just an asshole. When the carpenter is caught stealing, Sultan does whatever necessary to make sure that the carpenter is punished. The thing is, the carpenter gave back what was stolen and endured beatings and humiliation, but Sultan made things worse than they had to be. He didn't even treat his children--his sons-- well.
All that said, this was a well-written book. If the subject matter hadn't been so bleak and disturbing, this would have been a more riveting read. This should not have taken the two weeks it took for me to read.
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