Recommended Reading - The Bookseller of Kabul

While I recommend this book, I must say, that it took me a while to finish it. It is a very good insight into post Taliban Afganistan, but the unusual approach of the author made it feel inconclusive. Although it reads like fiction, it is based on real people. Seierstad uses a fly on the wall, journlistic approach. When I think about it, the "unsatisfactory" feeling I had while reading the book came from the way that real life has a habit of not having neat conclusions! In the epilogue we do get some story endings. In the final 3 pages we are given a brief update on a number of the incidents. This is quite effective in bringing some sort of closure. It is well written and the insights are subtle and complete. There is a very real sense of place and culture that is completely alien to us in the Western world, even after the Taliban. Seierstad is a Norwegian journaist and has written a book on life in Serbia and another on life in Baghdad. The bookseller has made me curious enough to try "With Their Backs to the World" - the Serbian book.