Kabul [Paperback]

M. E. Hirsh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

Modern events sometime demand the reissue of a book published several years ago. Hirsh's internationally acclaimed 1986 novel, Kabul, provides an almost miraculous window into a country and its people that now have captured the world's attention.

When the last Afghan king is deposed in the summer of 1973, the family of Omar Anwari, his loyal cabinet minister, is torn apart along with their country. Over seven turbulent years while Catherine, their American mother, struggles to hold them together, Mangal, the eldest son, breaks with his father to follow his own political conscience; daughter Saira in New York is torn between two cultures; and Tor, the youngest, most passionate of the three grows up to become perhaps the bravest of them all.

An epic tale of civil war, political intrigue, and family tragedy, Kabul is a moving, insightful portrayal of a proud nation brought to chaos.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At Mangal Anwari's lavish wedding, his bride wears a heavily embroidered dress and a thin veil that barely conceals the scars she earned as an outspoken dissident during the turbulence of the early 1970s in Afghanistan. One night later, her new husband joins in a plan to depose the king, gaining a questionable position of power in the new military government. At Mangal's insistence, his younger sister Saira departs for New York just hours before the coup, while their petulant young brother Tor is sent to Moscow University, where he buries his resentment by helping to expand an already black market. Five years later, after Mangal is lost during another uprising and the threat of Soviet domination begins to loom large over Afghanistan, Tor returns to Kabul's treacherous streets to rescue his parents and make contact with the rebel camp, while Saira foolishly shares secrets with her Russian lover, shattering the lives of her family by helping the Soviets strike at the heart of the resistance. First novelist Hirsh has turned in a gratifying and vibrant description of a family and a country torn by political strife. January 30
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In 1973 the prominent Anwari family gathers in their Kabul home to celebrate the marriage of eldest son Mangal to Roshana, a social and political reformer. In one day the family's fortunes change. Patriarch Omar resigns as Cabinet Minister to King Zahir. Mangal helps Prince Daoud in his coup setting up the first Afghan republic. Daughter Saira's clandestine love affair is discovered; her banishment to New York City and her disastrous relationship with the ambitious Russian Andrei are the results. Tor, the youngest and hardest to control, is sent in disgrace to Moscow where he becomes a black market dealer. Intrigue and political machinations abound, ending with the 1979 Soviet invasion and the family's near-annihilation. Although none of the locales rings true, bold characterization, sweeping action, strong plotting, and solid writing make this a first novel worth reading. Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312301731
• ISBN-13: 978-0312301736
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book whose time has definitely arrived., November 27, 2001

By 

Marilyn Z. (Medford MA U.S.A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kabul (Hardcover)

'Kabul'is a great read on several levels. I read this book when it came out in 1986 and then again recently. In the eighties, at the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, I found it to be a great story with compelling characters and a window on an exotic country that I knew absolutely nothing about. Now, in 2001, I have reread it and absorbed far more about the tumultuous and confusing political situation that brought Afghanistan into the situation in which we see it today.

'Kabul' features the half-American family of a minister to former King Zahir Shah. The eldest son is a journalist later turned rebel leader. The daughter of the family is American educated. We see her life in the the U.S., tormented by political and familial loyalties and contrasted against the lives of her women friends back home. The youngest son is educated in Moscow and we see him evolve from a spoiled rich kid into a passionate and patriotic man. Issues of tribal loyalties and boundary disputes that I am reading about in the news every day are much more understandable to me after reading this book. I literally made a check list of the many conflicts Hirsh dramatizes so effectively in fiction that are now playing out on the world stage.

It is fortunate that this book has been reissued in paperback right now. Its time has definitely come!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author's Comment, November 29, 2001

By 

M. E. Hirsh - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kabul (Hardcover)

'Kabul' opens at the end of what the New York Times has called the Golden Age of Afghanistan, when Kabul was a sophisticated international capital with a co-ed university drawing faculty from around the world. It follows one prominent half-American family caught up in events from the end of the monarchy until the Soviet invasion, which set the stage for 22 years of war and international abandonment, and ultimately the rise of the Taliban. This portrait of Afghanistan's not-too-distant past explores the tensions that came to polarize the country.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget "Kite Runner." This is the book to read . . ., June 5, 2006

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kabul (Paperback)

This terrific novel about Afghanistan in the 1970s makes "The Kite Runner" seem plodding and shallow. It is a family saga with its own "spoiled prince" character, full of political intrigue in the years leading up to the Soviet invasion, and its closing chapters involve not one but two daring rescue missions. The scope of this 440+ page novel is as far ranging and ambitious as Boris Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago."

The fortunes and fate of the well-to-do Anwari family are linked to the rise and fall of governments in Kabul, and the country itself is portrayed in the grip of revolutionary conflict and in an international context involving its neighbors, the US, and the USSR. Meanwhile, there are weddings, love affairs, sibling rivalries, conflicts between parents and children, babies born, illness and death, mixed loyalties, hopes, fears, disappointments, the entire gamut of the human drama.

This intricately plotted novel weaves together a host of story threads and shifting points of view among characters that deepen their emotional and psychological reality. Dialogues between them are elegant and sharp witted as they jockey for advantage with each other while reaching at the same time for any feelings that would lessen their vulnerability. Don't let the burqas on the cover mislead you. The women in this novel are strong and independent, and their struggle to remain so represents the birth pangs of an ancient civilization on the verge of the modern age.

Hirsch has written one heck of a novel, and it deserves an audience that yearns to know more about the country and the culture that for decades has continued to withstand the destructive forces of civil strife and international conflict.