Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70374 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
When the young Afghanistanian girl Samira is born, her father, a commander fighting in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, decides to raise her as a boy called Samir. The fact that Samir is really a girl is soon forgotton as Samir learns to fight, ride and shoot as well as any boy and when her father is killed she becomes the head of the family. As an adult, she falls in love with the male friend of her youth and is forced to reveal her true identity. In order to marry Bashir, she must relinquish the freedom she is afforded as a man. Samira follows her heart but hates wearing the veil. Eventually, the torment becomes too great and she decides that there must be a third way to live, as a confident woman not confined by the rules of her culture. This is her story.

About the Author
Siba Shakib:
Born in Iran, Siba Shakib grew up in Tehran and attended a German school there. A writer and maker of documentaries and films, she has travelled to Afghanistan many times over the last five years, visiting the north as well as the territory that was commanded by the Taliban. Several of her documentaries have won awards, including the moving testimonials she has made of the horrors of life in Afghanistan and the plight of the Afghan women. She lives in New York and Germany.

Customer Reviews

Samir and Samira
This is a badly written book which is so blunt and very hard to get into. The author does not have style which entices readers in. It was so boring that I skipped chapters just to find the only part which I thought may be interesting where Bashir discovers Samir is a female. I would never recommend this book to anyone and found it a waste of my money!

I loved it, worth the time and money spended
While reading this book,i enjoyed every second of it. The writer style is amazing. I was occupied with this story till I finished it. The writer touched a very sensetive issues in the comunity that has never been touched and dealt with in the way she did. From today I will look for the writer name when i want to choose a book. You must read.

Badly Written - A Dissapointment
After reading the bookseller of Kabul I wanted to read more about Afghanistan. The premise sounded really intriguing but was poorly executed. It is supposedly based on a true story of the daughter of an Afghan tribal leader who is raised as a boy. However unlike The Bookseller of Kabul which was a true story which reads like fiction it comes across as completely made up and unreadable. The style was extremely difficult to read and lack of speech marks made it hard to tell whether something was being said or just thought. Also the repetition of certain phrases and images became more and more irritating as the book went on.

The most enjoyable part of the book for me was when she met her Grandfather as I felt I could really visualize him and he was an interesting character. However that is just a small section of the book.
I was really dissapointed that such an interesting story was told it such an unenjoyable way. When I finished it, which was an achievement in itself, I sold it which is something I never do. I got less than I paid for it but I was happy to get at least some of my money back. I would advise loaning this book from a library before you think of buying it to see if you enjoy the unusual style and aren't bothered by the things that spoiled the story for me.