A Fort of Nine Towers - Softcover

Omar, Qais Akbar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447221753 ISBN 13: 9781447221753

Publisher: Picador, 2014

Synopsis

Qais Akbar Omar was eleven when a brutal civil war engulfed Kabul. For Qais, it brought an abrupt end to a childhood filled with kites and cousins in his grandfather’s garden: one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan history had begun. Ahead lay the rise of the Taliban, and, in 2001, the arrival of international forces. A Fort of Nine Towers is the story of Qais, his family and their determination to survive these upheavals as they were buffeted from one part of Afghanistan to the next. Drawing strength from each other, and their culture and faith, they sought refuge for a time in the Buddha caves of Bamyan, and later with a caravan of Kuchi nomads. When they eventually returned to Kabul, it became clear that their trials were just beginning.

'To read this book is to understand Afghanistan as it exists today. This haunting memoir traces the unimaginable odyssey of one family whose world has collapsed. But it is also a chilling ground-zero chronicle of the beleaguered nation’s darkest hours of the last three decades. Poetic, powerful, and unforgettable.'
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner

About this title

Review:

'A Fort of Nine Towers [is] a powerful coming-of-age tale set in Afghanistan [... B]eautifully written, with the pacing and suspense of a novel, his memoir contains moments when the grief becomes almost too difficult to bear. Nonetheless, his richly detailed account of growing up in Afghanistan [...] is deeply fulfilling, remarkable not least because he lived to tell the tale. The product of an immensely talented writer, A Fort of Nine Towers puts a human face on the violent history of Afghanistan' Rachel Newcom, author of Women of Fes: Amibiguities of Life in Urban Morocco and The Gift

'A poetic, funny and terrifying memoir of life in Kabul between the Soviet Army's exit and the Taliban's retreat.' Economist

'Among Omar's many achievements, his greatest is in capturing a child's world without undercutting the depth of his book. ... exhilarating and unsettling, because this is Omar's lived experience, and one that is far stranger than fiction, though written in surprisingly refined prose for a writer who taught himself English to become an interpreter for Coalition soldiers.' Independent

'Lucid, moving ... The painful, sometimes funny human complexities of such anecdotes make Omar's book more than simply an eye-opening accout of a terrible period in recent history, though it's valuable enough as that ... a classic autobiography of universal resonance.' Newsday

'If you read only one book this summer, make it this one.' Jeanette Winterson, O Magazine

'An extraordinary memoir that [...] is even more haunting than The Kite Runner, because it's not fiction.' Philidelphia Inquirer

'I know of no other book in which the complex realities of life and death in contemporary Afghanistan are so starkly and intimately portrayed. This brave memoir, rich in tough humour and insight, recounts an insider's view into both the suffering and integrity of an uncompromisingly proud and courageous people; above all, it is a powerful reminder of the extraordinary tenacity of a culture which foreigners have repeatedly and fatally misjudged.' Jason Elliot, author of An Unexpected Light and Mirrors of the Unseen

'The first true life memoir of growing up in Kabul, this is both a magical and a chilling book which conveys the strength of family in truly terrible times. Definitely on my recommend list for 2013.' Christina Lamb

'Afghan author Qais Akbar Omar's story tugs at the heartstrings yet it is not maudlin or sentimental, only nostalgic and deeply evocative of his way of life . . . His moving story will broaden your focus and understanding of an oft-maligned country.' The Chronicle

'Qais Akbar Omar's tale of one family's journey during the Afghan civil war is inscriptional: its images carve themselves into the reader's mind . . . This book is essential reading for anyone eager to learn what more than three decades of war have cost the Afghan people.' Eliza Griswold, author of the New York Times bestseller The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam

'Foreigners rarely penetrate the rich cultural depths of Afghanistan. Here at last is a powerful, haunting memoir that does justice to its tough, tenacious and astonishingly good-humoured people. The best thing about it . . . is that it is a book about Afghanistan written by an Afghan.' --Evening Standard

Book Description:

With all the emotional power of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, this is the very first true life account of growing up in Afghanistan.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1447221753
• ISBN 13: 9781447221753
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 417