Central Asia book recommendation emails...

Below is an (edited) email exchange between my friend Amy and I concerning book suggestions. After I had typed it all out, I thought I'd share it with more than an audience of one.

Hey Annie! ...

So, you're my Central Asian novel guru and I was wondering if you've read A Thousand Splendid Suns yet? I read The Kite Runner as a recommendation from Kari (who got it from you!) and I loved it. I'm reading Three Cups of Tea currently and I'm liking the overall theme. ...

Amy


AMY--

I really liked Mirrors of the Unseen (about Iran) and An Unexpected Light (about Afghanistan). In both books Jason Elliot (the author, who speaks Farsi/Dari) travels around the country describing his adventures and giving cultural/political/religious history as well as describing the people and the landscape. He can get a bit flowery for me, but, y'know, the Persians are SO flowery themselves that I'd imagine writing about them without that floweriness would seem wrong.

(deleted comments about Lipstick Jihad. See comments in post below.)

James Michener's Caravans is GREAT. It's about a Jewish-American diplomat in the 1940's (?) who is assigned to the embassy in Kabul and who travels Afghanistan with some nomads in search of a missing American woman. It's fiction, but it's amazing how Michener--who was writing in the 1960's--could predict the future of Afghanistan.

M. M. Kaye was born in India as a child of the British Raj, and wrote some great novels about the days of the East Indian Trading Company. That was before the British divided "India" into three countries: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. She wrote lots, but the two I read and loved (10-15 years ago!) were Shadow of the Moon and The Far Pavilions. One of them involves the area that is now Pakistan, although at that time it was still considered India.

I have a book by Rory Stewart called The Places Between about Afghanistan. I haven't read it, but it got great reviews. He's just a bit older than us and has led an incredible international life. I'm going to marry him.

I've also got a book called The Bookseller of Kabul about Scandinavian woman journalist who lived with a family in Kabul (who earned their living through a bookshop) in 2001-2002. Linda Blinn says it's great. I haven't read it yet.

(deleted comments about Reading Lolita in Tehran. See posts from April 2006)

I just found a list on Amazon.com (you KNOW this is fun for me, right?) called "After Kiterunner': http://www.amazon.com/After-quot-Kite-Runner/lmR232O5220QWMXref=cm_lmt_srch_f_1_rsrsrs0/102-4670310-3024946

It has some good suggestions, including some I've already listed. It also includes Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow, which I have with me, haven't read, and you can borrow if you like. Pamuk is a Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author.

Love!
Annie

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Amy mentioned:

Khaled Hosseini -- A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini -- Kiterunner
Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Rein -- Three Cups of Tea

Annie mentioned:

James Michener--Caravans
Jason Elliot --Mirrors of the Unseen
Jason Elliot -- An Unexpected Light
Rory Stewart--The Places Between
M. M.Kaye--Far Pavillions
M. M. Kaye -- Shadow of the Moon
Asne Seierstad--The Bookseller of Kabul
Azadeh Moaveni -- Lipstick Jihad
Azar Nafisi -- Reading Lolita in Tehran
Orhan Pamuk -- Snow