The Afghans: Three Lives Through War, Love and Revolt

In this searing panorama of Afghanistan, journalist Seierstad (The Bookseller of Kabul) surveys the tumultuous period from the rise of the Taliban in the mid-1990s through their ouster after the September 11 attacks, their long guerrilla war against the U.S.-backed government, and their return to power in 2021. She focuses on three protagonists: Jamila Afghani, who defied her family to get an education, eventually starting a women’s rights NGO and becoming a government official; Bashir, a Taliban commander who orchestrated bombings and kidnappings; and Ariana, a young law school graduate whose aspirations were stifled when the Taliban retook control. Seierstad gives an extraordinarily intimate portrait of the Taliban, who are motivated by ardent religious faith and endure agonizing sacrifices (Bashir was captured and brutally tortured by government forces). She also investigates the restrictions Afghan society places on women, who are denied education and careers, confined to the home, and sold in marriage (“Mahmoud rang every evening,” Seierstad writes of the obsequious yet domineering man whom Ariana’s parents are pressuring her to marry. “He was suffocating her with all his nattering” and “his constant refrain ‘I’m doing this for you, just tell me what you want, I will do everything you ask”). It’s a gripping, richly textured account of Afghanistan’s ordeal that humanizes all sides. (Aug.)