A review by tinkerer
The Storyteller's Daughter: One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland by Saira Shah

adventurous emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

The more I think about it, the more I see how hard of a book this would be to write well, but it is written well and honestly. I thought I was reading a book about identity first, and then history second, but they really are woven together, and I learned valuable context at the same time the author, Saira Shah, learns it in her narrative. Did you know, for example, that Afghan refugees were *required* to choose a mujahid group to affiliate with by the aid agencies there to serve them in Pakistan *in order to receive aid??* There was and is a lot more diversity to the ordinary people as well as those with group agendas than we are given information about. I really feel heartsick that Afghan women are being enclosed in a system that doesn’t want to hear their voices, and I feel we are responsible for not listening in the first place. I will say I was surprised and upset when the author colluded at times with oppression, such as telling a woman host that the birth control pill is a myth. There were other unflattering moments, but I trust the author’s information because of this honesty and these moments remind me of my own unflattering and/or youthful moments. I thought this book would be more about the storytelling tradition and apprenticeship as a woman, because I have an interest in the traditions and mechanics of that. While my search for that information continues, I am happy I finished this book full of Shah’s people-to-people contact and context. She gave us a long view right before and at the beginning of the Afghanistan war; God help us learn from the 20 years that came since.