This book by Saira Shah is by turns inspiring,humorous and heartbreakingly tragic.Of mixed Indian ,Scottish and Afghani
parentage,the author grew up with stories of a magical land ,of beautiful gardens ,flowing fountains like jewels in the desert,the Afghanistan of her ancestors.
It becomes her mission to try to reconcile the mythical Afghanistan of her childhood stories with the reality of the war-torn country it became.After studying Persian and Arabic at university in England ,where she grew up ,she became a journalist and travelled in search of the true Afghanistan .In the course of describing her travels she sheds light on the
culture of her ancestral lands .
Her encounter with her Afghan relatives who helpfully try to arrange a marriage for her ;her "assumed " engagement which has to be broken for her by a relative more experienced in the ways of the East,are amusing and true to life.She is perceptive in her insight into human character and motivation as when she describes the rivalry between two
women of the same household.She becomes expert in saving face for others ,partly as a self-protective strategy.An amusing incident is when she encounters a village mullah who often complains that no-one in the village can converse with him in Arabic.Since she has some basic Arabic they sit down to talk in view of the whole village.Quickly she realises that he knows no Arabic at all as he comes out with a stream of gibberish with the occasional pious phrase thrown in .She quick-wittedly saves the situation by explaining that when she hears Arabic spoken so well she knows she is in the presence of a true believer,but since she is learning Persian ,asks if he would forgive her if they spoke together in that language.
Her relationships with women show clearly the effects of the war ,or physical isolation on the population.Visiting a mountain village in Nuristan she enters a room where every object in the room could have existed in the fourteenth century .The women there have no frame of reference for the wonders of the outside world,due to their utter isolation .When Saira tries to explain about airplanes she can see that her listeners mind is full of magic carpets and jinns,so far outside their own experience is modern technology that it cannot even be imagined .A woman wistfully asks about a strange rumour she has heard ,that in the West there is a magic pill that can stop women having babies ."Both mother and sister now giggled openly at this ridiculous rumour"as the young wife asks how she may obtain such a thing .Due to the complete impossiblity of obtaining the birth control pill in such an isolated area ,and the probable wrath of the womans husband and other relatives ,the author claims she has no knowledge of any such thing ."One person''s reality is another person''s wild legend "She lived only a few kilometres from what she was looking for yet for her "it might as well have been on the moon. " In this situation there is a clear conflict between the wish for progress and all the benefits it may bring and the knowledge that contact with outside cultures causes destruction as well .
Another woman in Nuristan expresses her desire to leave with the author,experience the world outside and see whether she likes it .By doing this she would be changed forever and perhaps never be able to return to her former life ,made forever dissatisfied by the unknown freedoms and violence of the world .
Saira describes the fate of war refugees who escaped the shelling in their own villages only to find poverty ,disease and soul-destroying dependence on handouts far from their own lands .A family of refugees who choose to return to their bombed-out villages where at least they can starve without being indebted thers,preserving what little dignity they can salvage by whatever means they can .The book is enriched throughout by sayings of ancient Persian poets as if encouraging us to remember the deep roots of wisdom ,humanity and learning from which the Afghan people have come .This ancient wisdom seems to have been all but forgotten through many years of war and poverty ,in which children are taught only how to make war .