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Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story
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The intimate and riveting chronicle of an extraordinarily courageous Afghan-American teenager coming of age in post-9/11 Afghanistan.
Building on two acclaimed radio documentaries aired on This American Life, Hyder Akbar tells how his ordinary suburban California life was turned upside-down after 9/11. Hyder’s father, a scion of an Afghan political family, sold his business—a hip-hop clothing store in Oakland—and left for Afghanistan, where he became President Hamid Karzai’s chief spokesman and later, the governor of Kunar, a rural province. Obsessed since youth with a country he had never even visited, seventeen-year-old Hyder convinced his father to let him join him on three successive summers. Working alongside his father at the presidential palace and in Kunar has given Hyder a rare front-row seat at the creation of democratic government in Afghanistan. In Come Back to Afghanistan, Hyder interweaves his personal journey—a teenager struggling with his identity in his parents’ homeland—with a dramatic behind-the-scenes account of political and civilian life in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Uncommonly wise and insightful, Hyder travels from palaces to prisons and from Kabul to the borderlands, revealing Afghanistan as readers have never seen or understood it before.
Building on two acclaimed radio documentaries aired on This American Life, Hyder Akbar tells how his ordinary suburban California life was turned upside-down after 9/11. Hyder’s father, a scion of an Afghan political family, sold his business—a hip-hop clothing store in Oakland—and left for Afghanistan, where he became President Hamid Karzai’s chief spokesman and later, the governor of Kunar, a rural province. Obsessed since youth with a country he had never even visited, seventeen-year-old Hyder convinced his father to let him join him on three successive summers. Working alongside his father at the presidential palace and in Kunar has given Hyder a rare front-row seat at the creation of democratic government in Afghanistan. In Come Back to Afghanistan, Hyder interweaves his personal journey—a teenager struggling with his identity in his parents’ homeland—with a dramatic behind-the-scenes account of political and civilian life in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Uncommonly wise and insightful, Hyder travels from palaces to prisons and from Kabul to the borderlands, revealing Afghanistan as readers have never seen or understood it before.
DESCRIPTION:
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047
EAN: 9781582345208
ISBN: 1582345201
Label: Bloomsbury USA
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2005-11-10
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Release Date: 2005-10-13
Studio: Bloomsbury USA
SIMILAR ITEMS:
• Love and War in Afghanistan
• The Bookseller of Kabul
• The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
• Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan
• Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gripping and accessible.
Comment: You can tell that this was written by a teenager, but the casual tone is refreshing and makes for a better read, in my opinion. The author does a terrific job of making some very complicated situations and people easily comprehensible.
I read this book fast. Not because it was an easy read, but because I couldn't *stop* reading it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fascinating an accessable story of the rebuilding of Afghanistan
Comment: This book will take its place among my favorite books about Afghanistan. The author has an amazing story of three summers spent helping his father in Afghanistan after September 11th and the fall of the Taliban. Said Hyder Akbar's father brought his family to Pakistan and then America after the Soviet invasion but worked with the Mujahudeen during the Soviet occupation. His father knew Hamid Karzai and worked as his press secretary (2002) and then governor of Kunar (2003-2004). Said Hyder Akbar started coming over to work with his father starting the summer of his junior year in High School.
Being raised in America allows him to communicate the unique culture of Afghanistan to a US audience in a very accessible way. Having spent a year working with the Afghan Army I was fascinated to hear the perspective of someone would could articulate the perspective of ordinary Afghans interacting with US Soldiers and trying to rebuild their country.
Said Hyder Akbar's writing has great humor and candidness about it. His descriptions of the complex issues his father faced in governing a remote province on the Pakistan border are fascinating and illuminating of the problems that face rebuilding all of Afghanistan. He brings out the struggle and weariness of the people who have fought for over two decades and just want to have life without war. As noted above his description of the difficulties faced by US soldiers in interacting with an unfamiliar culture are spot on and very perceptive.
This book was written with Susan Burton of This American Life and anyone who likes this radio (and now TV) program will recognize the wit and power of that show in this book. It is a must read for any westerner who wishes to have a better understanding of the Afghan culture.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A book that is well paced, well written, and chuck full of adventure!
Comment: Said Hyder Akbar is a surprisingly strong writer for his age. The way that he leads the reader into this exotic world is amazing. One genuinely gets to feel some of the things that are in the news as far as the conflict near Pakistan's border. Although the book was written in 2006 many of his observations ring true to this day. If you are interested in Afghanistan/Pakistan make sure to read this book becuase it will not dissapoint you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting story
Comment: The beginning of the book where he had talked about the plane parts in the airport, really got me to read it. I had to read a non fiction book for LA, and I chose this book. It looked like an interesting story so I picked it up and read it. I really enjoyed the book but I had some questions for the author. For instance: If you knew what was happening in Afghanistan why did you still choose to go there. I would not have because I wou;d've been afraid to go there and something happen to me. I really liked your writing style and how you described the bombing and crossing into Pakistand. Very good book but it's kind of confusing for me
Customer Rating:
Summary: It will make you want to go to Afghanistan
Comment: Yesterday a friend asked what I was reading.
I just finished 'Come Back to Afghanistan: My Journey from California to Kabul' written by Said Hyder Akbar, a 20-year old college student in California. Like many others, Akbar's story is a migrating one - from Afghanistan to Pakistan, India, and then the USA.
When the Taliban were ousted in 2001, Akbar's father, a long time friend of President Hamid Karzai decided to go back to Afghanistan. Akbar started coming with him on his school and college breaks, and got back in touch with his country that he had left a long time ago. It's a homecoming of sorts.
The book is brilliant. Written with the assistance of journalist Susan Brunton, Akbar takes us into corners and niches that few books on Afghanistan do. It is deeply personal and highly political without the usual history, geography or other details. Born in Afghanistan and raised in the US, Akbar is able to straddle both countries and regions. He neither despairs nor scoffs at anyone or anytime. His writing is passionate, gentle and unassuming.
Akbar's goal in Afghanistan is to be with his father and get to know his country. He travels with, among other things, a tape recorder, and makes programmes for National Pubic Radio in California. He interviews the person in the highest office - President Karzai - as well as his driver, Sartor. He listens to everyone and judges none. During the two years he goes back and forth, Akbar's brother and mother visit Afghanistan. His father is appointed as the Governor of the province of Kunar, a remote and troubled area, where the family collects and lives together.
Through sickness and health Akbar goes through the journeys he charts for himself. His writing is sensitive and engaging. It never strays or lags. It is clear that he loves Afghanistan, is sensing what his relationship with his old land is, and how it will develop. He is conscious of the contradictions within himself.
When I think about why I liked the book so much, and the experience of reading the book, I feel it its so akin to my time in Afghanistan. Without being able to speak the language (Dari an Pashto), I communicated with those I could, in Urdu, Hindi and English. I reached out to the humanity in them, and they in turn, reached out to mine.
In the final analysis the book is about being reconciled to where we come from. No matter where we are, our multiple identities always call us to the land we were born, and we yearn to return. That has been my experience too.
The book also describes the Afghan situation - the challenges to the Afghan people, the leaders, the donor community and Americans stationed in Afghanistan and back home. It presents everyone's reality. Akbar's strength is his ability to see what is happening, from many perspectives, and present it in a dispassionate way.
In a growing body of literature on Afghanistan, Akbar's will enjoy a place of pride. It's young, passionate, and terribly easy to read.
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