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Summary
Summary
Jasmine Aimaq's stunning debut explores Afghanistan on the eve of a violent revolution and the far-reaching consequences of a young Kochi girl's tragic death.
Afghanistan, 1970s. Born to an American mother and a late Afghan war hero, Daniel Sajadi has spent his life navigating a complex identity. After years in Los Angeles, he is returning home to Kabul at the helm of a US foreign aid agency dedicated to eradicating the poppy fields that feed the world's opiate addiction.
But on the drive out of Kabul for an anniversary trip with his wife, Daniel accidentally hits and kills a young Kochi girl named Telaya. He is let off with a nominal fine, in part because nomad tribes are ignored in the eyes of the law, but also because a mysterious witness named Taj Maleki intercedes on his behalf. Wracked with guilt and visions of Telaya, Daniel begins to unravel, running from his crumbling marriage and escalating threats from Taj, who turns out to be a powerful opium khan willing to go to extremes to save his poppies.
This groundbreaking literary thriller reveals the invisible lines between criminal enterprises and political regimes--and one man's search for meaning at the heart of a violent revolution.
Author Notes
Jasmine Aimaq is half-Afghan, half-Swedish and grew up in several countries, including Germany, Afghanistan, England and the United States. She obtained her BA in History from UCLA and her PhD in History from Lund University Sweden. She has taught History and International Relations and also had a career in nonprofit. She was director of Press and Corporate Relations at the Pacific Council on International Policy, and Deputy Executive Director at Global Green USA, Mikhail Gorbachev's environmental and arms control movement. She is now the director of communications at Quest University Canada.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1970, Afghan-born American diplomat Daniel Abdullah Sajadi, the protagonist of Aimaq's stellar debut, is posted to Kabul to head the U.S. poppy eradication efforts in Afghanistan. While driving outside Kabul, Daniel accidentally hits a young girl and kills her. He pays a small fine, but opium kingpin Taj Maleki plays on his guilt and blackmails him into compromising himself and his counterdrug mission. Daniel's haphazard ruse to redirect eradication efforts away from Maleki's poppy fields leads to disastrous results. The lives of both men are thrown into peril as tensions rise between Islamic fundamentalists and pro-Communists. Along the way, Daniel learns the harsh truth about his celebrated Afghan war hero father, and risks everything to right the wrongs he set in motion as Soviet influence grows. Aimaq, an adviser on international arms control and foreign affairs, draws heavily on her childhood experiences in Afghanistan to provide glimpses into the complicated political and cultural dynamics of a country that has seen nearly half a century of constant war. Though she has altered some historical details to fit the narrative, her observations provide astonishing context to contemporary global issues such as Islamic extremism and the international heroin trade. Fans of Lauren Wilkinson's Cold War thriller American Spy won't want to miss this one. Agent: Jacques de Spoelberch, Jacques de Spoelberch Assoc. (Dec.)
Kirkus Review
A young American diplomat comes face to face with the turmoil of Afghan society and the anguish of its people in this debut novel by a half-Afghan, half-Swedish writer. While driving from Kabul to Herat with his wife, Rebecca, sometime in the late 1970s, Daniel Abdullah Sajadi hits and kills a little girl named Telaya. Daniel--whose mother is American and late father was an Afghan War hero--is the new director of a U.S. foreign aid agency, charged with fostering food production and wiping out the poppy fields that fuel the country's dangerous drug trade. Local guide Taj Maleki comes to his aid, taking him to the police to report the accident and to tribal leaders and Telaya's parents, to whom he makes payments. At length Daniel realizes that Taj is not a simple jobber but an opium khan. After a contentious discussion, Daniel, infuriated by Taj's argument that opium keeps many Afghans out of poverty, kicks him out of his car. Over the next several months, guilt, recriminations, and persistent nightmares about Telaya plague Daniel. Taj stays in touch by means of oblique threats. Then Taj crashes a dinner party with Daniel's mentor and other influencers in attendance and charms some of the guests. What begins as a thriller evolves into a detailed history of the region's traumas and a less-successful emotional and personal odyssey. As the country descends into war, Daniel's safety becomes a major concern. Peppered throughout the tale are a series of short, haunting fables, presented as children's stories but disclosing the brutal reality of Afghan life. An ambitious debut defying easy categorization. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Is the opium prince Daniel Sajadi, the weary protagonist of this searing debut, who tries to fill his father's very big shoes by helping eradicate Afghanistan's poppy fields? Or is he the ambitiously named Taj Maleki ("crown king"), who works his way up from starving orphan to a poppy-field khan? Or is opium itself the prince, controlling as it does the lives of destitute Afghans and the rich foreigners who imbibe the deadly crop? These and many more questions will remain with readers who follow Daniel and Taj through the lead-up to the 1978 communist takeover of Afghanistan, when Daniel kills a little girl, Telaya, with his car, and Taj is involved in getting restitution for her family of Kochi nomads. Offering a piercing look at the Afghan view of foreign aid and patriarchal foreigners, Aimaq, who is half-Afghan and spent part of her life in the country, is a writer to watch. Every carefully described detail here will stay with readers as they examine what they thought they knew about America's exporting of democracy and its war on drugs. For its worlds-within-worlds quality, give this to David Mitchell fans; it's also a great choice for book clubs.
Library Journal Review
Of Afghan and American parentage, Daniel Sajadi returns to Kabul in the 1970s as head of a U.S. foreign aid agency intent on plowing under Afghanistan's poppy fields. When he accidentally hits and kills a young Kochi girl on a road trip, a stranger named Taj Maleki gets him off the hook--and suddenly he's beholden to a reigning opium khan. From half-Swedish, half-Afghan, part American-educated Aimaq.
