What readers think of The Bookseller of Kabul, plus links to write your own review.

I personally met some of the family members of Sultan Khan, "The book seller of Kabul" and they swore that most of the content of this regarding sisters of Sultan Khan were not true. They claimed that this book gave them a bad name to them in their area of origin and they were compelled to leave and take refuge in Pakistan. They also claimed that they did not have any legal document for their stay in Pakistan and they could not go back to their area of origin because of the fear of the people locally who accused them of transgressing social mores. They maintained that when this book published in Persian, it made their life miserable and there was a rift in their family and lastly they were compelled to leave the area.

I was really looking forward to reading The Bookseller of Kabul having heard the author interviewed on Irish radio. But I was terribly disappointed. I found the book to be very unbalanced and wondered if she liked any of the people whom she admitted were extremely hospitable to her. She seems to have some regard for Leila alone. Of course there are things in Afghanistan that many westerners find unacceptable but I do not believe that the people are so unlikeabe and nasty to each other as she portrays them. They seem not to have any redeeming qualities at all according to Asne Seierstad, apart from their hospitality. No matter what the problems in a society, people have good and bad qualities. Perhaps the Khan family's greatest fault was in trusting this writer to be fair and balanced. Contrast this to The Kite Runner also set largely in Afghanistan and The Blond in the Bazaar -which although less well written from a literary point of view, is a much more balanced view of another Moslem society - this time Pakistan.

I am a person that usually enjoys reading and learning about other cultures. But this is the single worst book I have ever read. This book does not have a plot. It is a collection of irrelevant short stories that are only vaguely linked. It is a very biased presentation of the life of Afghanis. I would highly discourage any person from reading this book. The author presents it as a factual representation of the Khan family. The actual man, Shah Muhammad Rais, as filed a law suit against the Norwegian author because the book was extremely inaccurate in its portrayal of Afghan life. My opinion is that this is the absolute worst book I ever read.

My first knowledge of Book Seller of Kabul came into existence on 18/11/05 when I was watching Asne Seierstad being interviewed on BBC 'Hard Talk extra', further research led me to her other interviews and her second work titled One hundred and one days.

In all her interviews Asne Seierstad seems to be unapologetic for having misrepresented Afghan culture and for betraying confidences and hospitality of Shah Mohammed. She was not working in a typical war zone as many of you would want us believe. She was in fact working under the protection and blessing of foreign forces and has disgracefully exploited Afghanistan's misfortune while her much hyped girl's school in Afghanistan is nothing but a cover up for her sins. In her two books we are exposed only to Asne Seierstad's version of the story. We might hear different story later from Abbas, Aliya, Amir and Shah Mohamed, probably when the foreign forces have left Iraq and Afghanistan. And from the widows of Chechnya even much later, probably when her third book on Chechnya has been published and also publicized out of proportion by the western media.

Asne Seierstad at the moment openly admits that the Russian Army is brutal but who knows what will be her stand when she finishes writing her next book on Chechnya. She might probably not spare Chechen women who looked after her, at the time when their husbands were either killed or away fighting the Russians.

I myself have twice turned down requests by western writers who wanted to discuss with me on matters touching our way of life simply because I mistrust writers who have an axe to grind. If I had submitted to any of their requests I would probably have ended like Shah Mohamed with my name changed to Sultan Khan and probably an extra girls school built on our neighborhood.