Overbooked Book Lists

Page Modified: June 25, 2009

Afghanistan Stars Fiction and Nonfiction Titles

Fiction

• The Warlord's Son
  Author: Fesperman, Dan
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414738 Date: 2004
  PW
  In this electrifying thriller set in present-day Afghanistan, the fates of an American journalist and his Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests.
  Updated 8.16.04
• Legacy of Love
  Author: Trollope, Joanna
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670891819 Date: 2000
  Booklist
  Trollope's second Caroline Harvey historical novel traces the lives and loves of three generations of strong, adventurous women.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 10/10/00
• The Mulberry Empire
  Author: Hensher, Philip
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375414886 Date: 2002
  KirkusBooklist
  Spanning a decade and moving between London and Calcutta, The Mulberry Empire explores the doomed 1839 mission of some 50,000 forces of the British Empire as they entered Afghanistan to overthrow a hostile amir.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | First Fiction Debuts | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 9.7.02
• The Kite Runner
  Author: Hosseini, Khaled
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222453 Date: 2003
  Library JournalKirkusPW
  An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, takes readers from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | All Stars
  Updated 5.12.03
• The Swallows of Kabul
  Author: Khadra, Yasmina
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 18.95 ISBN: 0385510012 Date: 2004
  PWBooklist
  The extraordinary bestselling novel from France, set in Kabul, this is a stunning portrait of life under the Taliban.
  Updated 2.5.04

Nonfiction

• Come Back to Afghanistan
  Author: Akbar, Said Hyder
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582345201 Date: 2005
  KirkusLJ
  Building on two acclaimed radio documentaries aired on "This American Life," this intimate and riveting chronicle is delivered by an extraordinarily courageous Afghan-American teenager coming of age in post 9/11 Afghanistan.
  Updated 11.23.05
• The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan
  Author: Anderson, Jon Lee
  Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117236 Date: 2002
  Kirkus
  Two weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, correspondent and bestselling author Anderson became one of the first Western journalists to get into Afghanistan. Distinguished by his gritty, on-the-ground observations, probing interviews, and gift for telling a story, The Lion's Grave is war reporting in the tradition of A.J. Liebling and Michael Herr.
  Updated 11.30.04
• Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance
  Author: Benard, Cheryl
  Publisher: Broadway $ 23.95 ISBN: 0767913019 Date: 2002
  Library Journal
  An inside look at the women of RAWA, the underground Afghan women's organization whose daring, clandestine activities are the only effective civil resistance to the Taliban.
  Updated 4.24.02
• Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
  Author: Crile, George
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 26 ISBN: 08711385489 Date: 2003
  BooklistPW
  Charlie Wilson's War tells the story of what became the largest covert operation in history--costing over $1 billion a year. Moving from the back rooms of the Capitol, to secret chambers at Langley, to arms-dealer conventions, to the Khyber Pass, this is a compulsively readable account of the inside workings of the CIA.
  Updated 11.30.04
• Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
  by Elliot, Jason
  Publisher: St Martins $ 30 ISBN: 0312274599 Date: 2001
  PW
  Part travelogue, part historical evocation, part personal quest, and part reflection on the joys and perils of passage, An Unexpected Light captures perfectly the emotional lure of a seldom-glimpsed world. It is a poignant look at Afghanistan and a heartfelt reflection on the experience of travel itself.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  
• This Man's Army
  Author: Exum, Andrew
  Publisher: Gotham $ 25 ISBN: 1592400639 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  Soldier X vividly brings to life his journey through ROTC training, the grueling trials of the elite Ranger School, and into the treacherous terrain of the Shah-e-Kot Valley in Afghanistan where he must confront and kill an Al Qaeda fighter.
  Link: ThisMansArmy.com
  Updated 1.26.04
• The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan
  Author: Macintyre, Ben
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374201781 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  In the year 1838, a young adventurer raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the wilds of Afghanistan. Macintyre tells the astonishing true story of Josiah Harlan, the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, the man who would be the first and last American king.
  Updated 2.10.04
• The Interrogators: Inside the Secret War Against Al Qaeda
  Author: Mackey, Chris & Greg Miller
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316871125 Date: 2004
  PW
  Hogan and Miller--senior interrogator in Kandahar and a reporter with access to the interrogations--offer an illuminating examination of the psychology and physiology of lying and determining whether someone is telling the truth.
  Updated 7.19.04
• Osama: The Making of a Terrorist
  Author: Randal, Jonathan C.
  Publisher: Knopf $ 26.95 ISBN: 0375409017 Date: 2004
  KirkusPW
  How is it possible for one middle-aged Saudi millionaire to threaten the world's only superpower? This is the question at the center of Jonathan Randal's riveting, timely account of Osama bin Laden's role in the rise of terrorism in the Middle East. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 6.30.04
• The Bookseller of Kabul
  Author: Seierstad, Asne
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316764500 Date: 2003
  KirkusPW
  Invited to live with a Kabul bookseller and his family for several months, an award-winning journalist now gives readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 10.2.03
• The Storyteller's Daughter
  Author: Shah, Saira
  Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0375145319 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  The freelance journalist who filmed Beneath the Veil offers a startling memoir of how her life was shaped by two dramatically disparate worlds. This is Saira, part sophisticated and sensitive Western liberal, part fearless, life-gulping Afghan, falling in love with her ancestral myth, chasing Afghanistan.
  Updated 10.2.03