Read Around Asia Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.
Best books from Asia (1972)
21.
Defiant Dreams : The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education by Sola Mahfouz, Malaina Kapoor EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life. “Stories like this inspire me. Seeing the way people like Sola Mahfouz think about the world reinforces my optimism about the future.”―BILL GATES Sola Mahfouz was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1996, the year the Taliban took over her country for the first time. They banned television and photographs, presided over brutal public executions, and turned the clock backward on women’s rights, practically imprisoning women within their own homes and forcing them... continue
22.
My Forbidden Face : Growing Up Under the Taliban : a Young Woman's Story by Latifa, Chékéba Hachemi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Born into a middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980, Latifa had a conventional childhood. Then, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. And from that moment, Latifa, just sixteen, became a prisoner in her own home. The simplest and most basic freedoms were forbidden. She was forced to put on a chadri, the state-mandated uniform that covered her entire body. Disbelief at having to hide herself was soon replaced by fear, the fear of being whipped or stoned like women she'd seen. My Forbidden Face provides a moving and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful hon... continue
25.
A Fort of Nine Towers : An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A carpet designer in Kabul describes his childhood before the Mujahedin took over, his family's struggle for survival after fleeing their home and how his secret carpet factory provided both employment and education for neighborhood girls.
26.
Les cerfs-volants de Kaboul by Khaled Hosseini FR
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
En plus de nous révéler l'Afghanistan contemporain, le romancier réussit une très belle histoire d'amour en ce lieu difficile. [SDM].
28.
Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan's First Female Pilot by Niloofar Rahmani, R. D. Sykes EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Niloofar Rahmani was born in 1991 in Kabul, Afghanistan, just a few years after the Soviets left, and during the rise of the Taliban her father took his young family to Pakistan, where they lived for nine years as refugees. Then, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the international coalition's invasion, the Rahmani family returned to their home in Kabul. In 2010, for the first time since the Soviets, Afghanistan allowed females to join the military, and Niloofar entered Afghanistan's military academy. However, the professed openness of the new Afghan military could not surmount centuries of ... continue
29.
The Lightless Sky : A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World by Gulwali Passarlay EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A gripping, inspiring, and eye-opening memoir of fortitude and survival—of a twelve-year-old boy’s traumatic flight from Afghanistan to the West—that puts a face to one of the most shocking and devastating humanitarian crises of our time. “To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise what was it all for?” In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali’s mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the twelve-year-old across eight countries, from ... continue
30.
Freitag ist ein guter Tag zum Flüchten by Elyas Jamalzadeh, Andreas Hepp DE
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
"Actually, everyone flees," says Afghan refugee Elyas Jamalzadeh. An exciting and humorous book about his tragic escape story
"Imagine being nervous all your life, noticing everything, constantly on guard. I was born nervous. I was illegal. It could happen every year, every day, every minute." Elyas Jamalzadeh's Afghan parents were already living in Iran when he was born. He was born a refugee. In 2014, he set out on the dangerous journey to Europe. With impressive immediacy, a journey is described here that is almost impossible to survive. The fact that Jamalzadeh ... continue