To find a book today that is interesting, topical, and readable is a rare feat. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad is just such a gem. After 9/11, and with the ongoing War on Terrorism, so much of the focus is on far away countries with unfamiliar cultures and unfathomable lives. Attempts to learn more about these issues can often be thwarted by angry rhetoric, long academic tomes, politically correct pandering, or turgid prose. Asne Seierstad, in contrast, has produced a fascinating, educational, and enjoyable book that will leave you feeling like you know the people of Afghanistan better for having read it. No wonder it has become the best-selling book in the history of Norway and has been creating buzz all over Europe. That buzz has now come to America.

The Bookseller of Kabul was the result of a simple yet courageous idea. After having spent six weeks in Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance, Seierstad made for Kabul. While in Kabul she met the intriguing owner of a bookshop and soon found herself spending hours listening to his stories of life under the various regimes: communist, Mujahedeen, and Taliban. Each was destructive and tyrannical in its own unique way and each forced the bookseller to defend his beloved books, often without success:

First the communists burned my books, then the Mujahedeen looted and pillaged, finally the Taliban burned them all over again.

As part of their growing friendship, the Norwegian journalist was even invited over to his house for dinner. Her interaction with this unique man and his family presented an opportunity: the chance to write a book about a real family in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. She raised the idea with the bookseller, given the pseudonym Sultan Khan in the book, and he graciously agreed to allow the author full access to his life and his family. Besides living with the family, the author had unique access. As a western woman she had access not only to the women of the family but also the men. She could participate in both the intimate day-to-day activities of the mothers, wives, and daughters but she could also interact with the Sultan and his sons as they moved in the larger world. This access is a big part of what this book so fascinating and educational. It is also what gives it such an emotional punch. The author has the access sociologists dream of.

The interesting subject and the unique perspective set the stage for the book but what makes it all click is the fictionalized form. Rather than attempt to report what she found in a straightforward non-fiction work, Seierstad turns the facts and feelings she uncovers into a fictionalized story. As a result, the Bookseller of Kabul reads like a novel rather than a contemporary news account. Here is how the author describes it:

I have written this book in literary form, but it is based on real events or what was told to me by people who took part in those events. When I describe thoughts and feelings, the point of departure is what people told me they thought or felt in any given situation . . . I am not, of course, an omniscient author. Internal dialogue and feelings are based entirely on what family members described to me.

Fictionalizing history is a tricky thing. One can easily leave an unwarranted impression or create a belief in facts that are unverified. But that is not really a danger here because the aim is not to argue facts or the historical record but rather to gain insight into the life of a particular people and place. At this Seierstad succeeds.