The Bookseller of Kabul

For more than twenty years Sultan Khan defied the authorities - be they communist or Taliban - to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated & imprisoned by the communists & watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. He even resorted to hiding most of his stock in attics all over Kabul. But while Khan is passionate in his love of books & hatred of censorship, he is also a committed Muslim with strict views on family life. 

As an outsider, Seierstad is able to move between the private world of the women - including Khan's two wives - & the more public lives of the men. And so we learn of proposals & marriages, suppression & abuse of power, crime & punishment. The result is a gripping & moving portrait of a family, & a clear-eyed assessment of a country struggling to free itself from history.