Read by Me
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women
by 18 Afghan women (Translated by 5 different translators)
Author(s) from:
Afghanistan
Setting:
Afghanistan
Original Language:
Afghanistan's 2 principle languages - Dari and Pashto
First Publised:
2022
Review:
This short story anthology is a must read as it gives voice to the women of Afghanistan like has not been done before. Their stories draw on real life and chronicle daily life in Afghanistan. I am so glad that Untold's writer development program took the time and resources to put this project together. I find myself remembering bits and pieces and I would like to reread this collection at some point. To quote Lyse Doucet from the introduction of this book, "Stories matter; so too the storytellers. Afghan women writers, informed and inspired by their own personal experiences, are best placed to bring us these powerful insights into the lives of Afghans and, most of all, the lives of women." (Read in 2025 - Oct 23-26)
Other Recommendations
Load Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan
by 8 Afghan women poets (Translated by Farzana Marie)
Author(s) from:
Herat, Afghanistan
Setting:
Afghanistan
Original Language:
Persian Dari
First Publised:
2015
Description:
"This unique contribution fills a gap in our understanding of the Afghan people, their history and society."--Nancy Hatch Dupree, Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini
Author(s) from:
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, moved to the U.S. at 15, and didn't returning to Afghanistan until 2003, when he was 38.
Setting:
Kabul,Afghanistan
Original Language:
English
First Publised:
2007
Description:
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Author(s) from:
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, moved to the U.S. at 15, and didn't returning to Afghanistan until 2003, when he was 38.
Setting:
Afghanistan, 1975
Original Language:
English
First Publised:
2003
Description:
Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.