The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad (Review)

Bokhandlaren från Kabul (The Bookseller of Kabul) by Åsne Seierstad  

Published 2002. | My rating: ★★★✯☆

This is the story of the Kahn family, taking place in Kabul, Afghanistan, the spring 2002. Seierstad lived with them that spring, and she wrote a book about them, from their point of view. Åsne Seierstad wasn’t in the book, for better or for worse, I don’t know. The Kahns are a upper or middle-class family in Afghanistan. Still only few people in the family live well. In this book we get to see things from the man in the house’s eyes, and from the youngest sister’s eyes, and everyone in between. The differences are horrible, and I wanted to scream out of frustration several times.

Being a feminist, reading this was horrible and eye opening. While I’ve always known women in other countries, especially poor ones, have it bad, I hadn’t quite grasped just how bad. Reading about women being treated as objects and not having right to feelings or opinions made me so angry I didn’t want to keep on reading at some points. Which probably is a good thing, because this book gave me a smack in the face of reality. And honestly, that makes me want everyone to read this book. Not necessarily because it’s a good read, but because it gives so so much more understanding about what’s actually going on over there.

So it’s not a good read, huh?

In my opinion, not so much. It’s a great book, it’s well-written and all,  but it was honestly so challenging to read it, at least for me, since I’m not all that used to reading non-fiction. Sometimes, right in the middle of the story, you come across information-dumps, which I found really tiring. Good to know, sure, but not that enjoyable to read, if you’re after the story of the Kahns, as I was. If you want a book to learn stuff, I’m sure this is for you, just don’t expect an easy read for right before you go to sleep, because that’s not what you’re going to get.

Of course, I don’t know how accurate the representation of growing up in Kabul is, as Seierstad hasn’t, and can only write what she experienced and has been told. You’ll have to decide for yourself if you can trust it, but for me, it felt so real when I read it, so I personally believe it to be accurate. Which, as already mentioned, is horrible.

While I didn’t particularly enjoyed the book, I’m glad I read it. The Bookseller of Kabul opened my eyes, and taught me a lot.   

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