My Life with the Taliban (Columbia/Hurst) Hardcover – February 4, 2010

Not perhaps since the Khmer Rouge has a movement emerged on the world stage that is as opaque to outsiders as the Taliban. Into this murk Abdul Salam Zaeef shines some much-needed light with his fascinating memoir. By virtue of his role as the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Zaeef was privy to the Taliban's decision making in the run-up to 9/11 and thereafter. His story has much to say about the nature of the gathering insurgency that NATO and the United States presently face. Those who want a window into the thinking of the Taliban today could do no better than this account.

The entire world wants to understand the Taliban these days, yet precious few people can tell the inside story of this shadowy movement, which makes Abdul Salam Zaeef's autobiography an incredibly important book. By revealing the inner workings of the Taliban from its earliest days, Zaeef challenges the accepted wisdom about the insurgency now facing international troops. By the time you finish, you might not sympathize with the Taliban, but you will know them as people, not monsters.

This memoir is highly significant and will greatly appeal to those wanting an Islamist counter to orthodox accounts of the rise and fall of the Taliban.

Who are the Taliban? This is the question that has obsessed policymakers and the public alike. In this truly exceptional text, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Zaeef, offers an honest account of his personal world-view and a first-hand history of the Taliban movement. The remarkable editing of Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn allows non-specialists to understand fully the context and cultural references that support Zaeef's narrative.

My Life with the Taliban provides unique hindsight into the worldview of the Taliban. No other book published so far in English offers such an important historical document and captivating read.

A valuable addition to the literature on contemporary Afghan history.

Invaluable.... This is a book that should be read by anybody with an interest in why Afghanistan has gone so badly wrong.

Full of insights on who the Taliban are and how they came about, and should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the region.

A book that for the first time places readers at the heart of the Taliban's way of thinking... beautifully translated and extensively edited for easier understanding.The New York Review of Books

Offer[s] important clues that could help to answer some of the most pressing foreign policy questions now confronting the Obama administration.

Highly recommended

As the only insider account in existence, it provides some valuable insights into the inner workings of a movement that defies easy categorisation.

A must-reading for those American policymakers who want to understand one of the most controversial religious movements in modern times.

My Life with the Taliban offers a window into one from enemy ranks.

[ My Life with the Taliban] offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a senior Taliban leader who remains sympathetic to the movement.

"[ My Life With the Taliban] reminded me how valuable it is to read about a movement like the Taliban from its own perspective. The real 'intelligence' in the book lies not in its details but in the texture, perspective, assumptions, and narratives that it provides from inside the Taliban leadership -- a very rare perspective.

Spies, generals, and ambassadors will pounce on this book, poring over its pages for clues to a way out of the Afghan morass.

The only detailed insider account of the Taliban.... Zaeef is no spokesman for Mullah Omar and the Quetta Shura. But My Life with the Taliban usefully shows that its leaders saw themselves as nationalists, reformers, and liberators rather than Islamist ideologues.

Zaeef's book [is] by far the most valuable work in translation to have emerged from the Taliban and should be on the shelf of every policymaker, analyst, or commentator dealing with Afghanistan. It is literally invaluable.... Where this book is most valuable is in its evocation of the world of the Taliban: their deep rootedness in the society of rural southern Afghanistan, as worked on by the experience of war, displacement, and the Pakistani refugee camps of the 1980s.

an amazing look into what drives the Taliban and like-minded groups. Though Zaeef is a politician and this was a political book, it should be required reading for all foreign commanders and students of political violence.

Abdul Salam Zaeef was born in southern Afghanistan in 1968 and played a role in many of his country's major events. He fought against the Soviets in the 1980s, undertook administrative positions within the Taliban in the 1990s, and became a public critic of the U.S.-backed Karzai government following his release from Guantanamo prison in 2005. He lives in Kabul.

Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn are researchers and writers permanently based in Kandahar. They have worked in Afghanistan since 2006, focusing on the Taliban insurgency and the history of southern Afghanistan over the past four decades. Their research extends to other Muslim countries as well, and they are regular contributors on Afghanistan to major western news channels.