Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - El librero de Kabul

This book is very informative about what Afghanistan was like in the months after 9/11, including the political turmoil and how individuals (men and women) felt. It taught me a lot and made me really grateful for my life in the US and made me decide I need to help the Afghan people somehow, and continue to learn about struggling people and countries in other parts of the world. This is the saddest book I've ever read. It took me a month to read whereas before that I was reading a book a week. Don't read if you're already depressed.

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laurenemily's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.0

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itshardizzy's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

This book is very informative about how Afghan people live their lifes through the eyes of a ordinary family. The author showed that even after the Taliban left some things didn't change as much as one would thing - especially when it's about women and women rights. The author exposes how things were after the September 11, but she didn't go deep into that and rather focus on women issues using the women in Sultan's family to do so. The women has no choice but to marry to a men that their families choose for her - and I doesn't matter if they are as young as 16. When married, they have to take care of both the cause and the husband (and the children) - and sometimes the husband will marry again, which forces them to accept a (most of the times) undesired polygamy relationship. The problems are many and the author doesn't hold back on giving this women a voice. The books was good to learn but as wasn't something that I enjoyed very much, the character really didn't stuck with me with the exception of one of the women. I feel like this book is one that everyone should read to better understand the situation in Afghanistan (especially if you consider yourself a feminist), but do it with the consideration that we are seeing this through the lenses of a Norwegian journalist and, even though she writes what the family tells her, there is still the possibility that her writing can be biased.

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char1otte's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.5

Very interesting as I knew next to nothing about Afghan life. Only four and a half stars because I found it very hard to keep track of names, people, relations, places. But that might be to do with my lack of knowledge of Afghanistan's history and culture.

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