From Publishers Weekly
Expelled from Afghanistan by the Taliban for her reporting, award-winning British journalist Lamb returned after the September 11 attacks to observe the land and its people firsthand. Through interviews with locals, Lamb paints a vivid picture of Taliban rule and offers a broader sense of life devastated by two decades of war. Her well-written and moving account also reveals the heroism of the Afghans, who not only survived but also resisted their Soviet occupiers; clandestine literary circles and art preservation techniques, for example, helped Afghans salvage their education and history from total destruction. Yet this is more than a chronicle of everyday Afghan life. Lamb's probing interviews with Afghan warlords, former members of the Taliban and other influential personalities ignored by the Western media fill a gaping hole in research on the ideologies and perspectives of these actors. Her encounters with Pakistani Taliban patrons Sami-ul-Haq and Hamid Gul shed light on Pakistan's support for the Taliban. Lamb could have strengthened her account by utilizing her impressive research to further explain Afghanistan's poorly understood local rulers. Moreover, her occasional use of sensationalist language to describe Afghan suffering belittles the gravity of the situation, and her attempts to intersperse the country's complicated history with the present situation may also confuse unfamiliar readers. Nevertheless, her work leaves one with a powerful sense of what the Afghan people have endured and sheds light on the local leaders who have shaped Afghanistan's recent history. Illus. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As a journalist covering Afghanistan during the end of the war with the Soviet Union, Lamb has a unique perspective. Observing that country after the fall of the Taliban, Lamb looks back on her days reporting on the war and is deeply unsettled to learn that the rebellious "mullahs on motorbikes" who took her to the warfront became the cruel and unbending Taliban soldiers who repressed the people of Afghanistan by perverting the ideals of Islam. "Nowhere does it say men must have beards or women can not be educated," one Afghani friend of Lamb laments, "in fact on the contrary the Koran says people must seek education." Lamb speaks to the head of the most prestigious Taliban school, a princess in exile, and women who risked everything to hold classes in their houses. She also receives letters from Marri, a young woman who barely dares to hope that the Americans will liberate the Afghan people. The scope of Lamb's book sets it apart from similar works; readers will find it both comprehensive and absorbing. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

Twenty-one-year-old Christina Lamb left suburban England for Peshawar on the frontier of the Afghan war. Captivated, she spent two years tracking the final stages of the mujaheddin victory over the Soviets, as Afghan friends smuggled her in and out of their country in a variety of guises.

Returning to Afghanistan after the attacks on the World Trade Center to report for Britain's Sunday Telegraph, Lamb discovered the people no one else had written about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war. Among them, the brave women writers of Herat who risked their lives to carry on a literary tradition under the guise of sewing circles; the princess whose palace was surrounded by tanks on the eve of her wedding; the artist who painted out all the people in his works to prevent them from being destroyed by the Taliban; and Khalil Ahmed Hassani, a former Taliban torturer who admitted to breaking the spines of men and then making them stand on their heads.

Christina Lamb's evocative reporting brings to life these stories. Her unique perspective on Afghanistan and deep passion for the people she writes about make this the definitive account of the tragic plight of a proud nation.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
Afghanistan. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on this confusing country and its seemingly incomprehensible inhabitants. But British war correspondent Christina Lamb offers a unique perspective on the tortured landscape our retaliatory bombs have been striking. While in Pakistan covering the final phase of the Soviet War, and years in advance of the events of 9/11, Lamb developed relationships with numerous Afghans who helped smuggle her across the border. Some of these friends later became members of the Taliban; others were oppressed women struggling to break free of the restrictions that make their lives a prison; another was Hamid Karzai, who became the nation's interim leader after the fall of the Taliban.

Before Afghanistan earned its notoriety as the hiding place of Osama bin Laden, it was a fractured country. And in The Sewing Circles of Herat, Christina Lamb tells the stories of the people who haven't made the news. Afghanistan was once a place of great beauty, a place where "an hour spent staring at a beautiful flower was an hour gained rather than wasted. A land where elders rather than libraries were the true source of knowledge." But after the Soviets retreated, life in Afghanistan resembled a scene out of The Road Warrior -- chaos, anarchy, and terrifying warlords ruled the day, and beheadings, gang rapes and public executions were commonplace. While Lamb was assembling her book, the stories she heard were "so inhuman [she would] just want to shut her notebook and run away." Luckily for us, she didn't, and she has been able to offer this gripping book that makes sense of a place few understand. Winter 2002 Selection

ANNOTATION

Second Place Winner, 2003 Discover Award, Nonfiction

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Twenty-one-year-old Christina Lamb left suburban England for Peshawar on the frontier of the Afghan war. Captivated, she spent two years tracking the final stages of the mujaheddin victory over the Soviets, as Afghan friends smuggled her in and out of their country in a variety of guises." Returning to Afghanistan after the attacks on the World Trade Center to report for Britain's Sunday Telegraph, Lamb discovered the people no one else had written about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war. Among them, the brave women writers of Herat who risked their lives to carry on a literary tradition under the guise of sewing circles; the princess whose place was surrounded by tanks on the eve of her wedding; the artist who painted out all the people in his works to prevent them from being destroyed by the Taliban, and Khalil Ahmed Hassami, a former Taliban torturer who admitted to breaking the spines of men and then making them stand on their heads.

SYNOPSIS

British foreign correspondent Lamb has won awards for her reports from Pakistan and Afghanistan since September 2001. Here she recounts her interactions with women in Afghanistan during the last days of Taliban rule. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Expelled from Afghanistan by the Taliban for her reporting, award-winning British journalist Lamb returned after the September 11 attacks to observe the land and its people firsthand. Through interviews with locals, Lamb paints a vivid picture of Taliban rule and offers a broader sense of life devastated by two decades of war. Her well-written and moving account also reveals the heroism of the Afghans, who not only survived but also resisted their Soviet occupiers; clandestine literary circles and art preservation techniques, for example, helped Afghans salvage their education and history from total destruction. Yet this is more than a chronicle of everyday Afghan life. Lamb's probing interviews with Afghan warlords, former members of the Taliban and other influential personalities ignored by the Western media fill a gaping hole in research on the ideologies and perspectives of these actors. Her encounters with Pakistani Taliban patrons Sami-ul-Haq and Hamid Gul shed light on Pakistan's support for the Taliban. Lamb could have strengthened her account by utilizing her impressive research to further explain Afghanistan's poorly understood local rulers. Moreover, her occasional use of sensationalist language to describe Afghan suffering belittles the gravity of the situation, and her attempts to intersperse the country's complicated history with the present situation may also confuse unfamiliar readers. Nevertheless, her work leaves one with a powerful sense of what the Afghan people have endured and sheds light on the local leaders who have shaped Afghanistan's recent history. Illus. (On sale Dec.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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