Roberta GatelyCritiques

This book is the first in the Jessie Novak series, starting off with a bang when the Mayor's aide Rob Hart and his wife are shot. As they reach the ER Jessie starts working on them but something is confusing her. Why was he just shot in the leg but his wife shot in the head and later dies?
Jessie can’t understand it, it doesn’t make sense and thinks Rob had something to do with it and starts delving but as she investigates and helps the police as much as she can, telling them her own suspicions she finds that she could be in danger too when strange things start happening at her home.
This was a great read, I liked Jessie Novak’s character and how she was determined to find out the real reason for the shooting and the death of Ann Hart but at the same time putting herself in a dangerous situation too.
It was a book that I didn’t want to put down, and although I found that my suspicions about someone was right it did not spoil the story. It just made me read it faster to see if I was right.

Overall I enjoyed reading it, it was different, fresh and I'm looking forward to the next instalment in the series.

Dead Girl Walking is an edge-of-your seat mystery. Jessie Novak loves her job as an ER nurse at Boston City Hospital. Usually able to distance herself from the trauma and tragedy, one case affects her unexpectedly. A young couple arrives, victims of a robbery gone wrong. But the story the husband tells doesn't ring true to Jessie. She is warned by Detective Sam Dallas to be careful, but Jessie doesn't trust him after a sleazy reporter tells her the police are involved in a cover-up. Jessie doesn't know who to believe or where to turn. This is a page-turner with enough medical details to satisfy, but presented in a way that didn't baffle or bore me. I enjoyed the well-drawn cast of characters, and hope to see them in future stories.

A young couple is brought to Boston City Hospital after they are shot in an alley while out celebrating. Nurse Jessie is the first on the scene and cannot help but notice the husband does not appear worried about the wife. He is allowed to stay in the hospital long after he's ready and she learns what a true jerk he is and begins to question if he's not the one who shot his wife.
This book was only okay, not suspenseful by my standards. Jessie was more concerned which police officer she was going to hook up with and how her makeup looked. Where she was smart, she also appeared high maintenance and it drove me nuts. I lost count the number of times she "touched up her makeup", how does she have time for that? When her apartment starts getting broken into and all the sudden her work schedule disappears, she just shrugs it off and says "Well I don't need it anyway". Where she is smart in some areas, she's completely stupid in others.
The reader knew throughout the entire book who was to blame, that was obvious. I wish I could have enjoyed this more, but I didn't. Thank you NetGalley for another book for my honest review.

Outstanding book! Grassroots history, geography, humanity, inhumanity, courage and well written and told!

Synopsis: Elsa trained as a nurse and decides to go to Afghanistan as a volunteer. She has limited support and must navigate the culture and customs with almost no help. She meets locals and makes friendships during her 6 months of volunteering.

My Rating:

3/5

I learned so much about the culture and customs of Afghanistan. This was an incredibly eye opening book much like my previous experience reading the Kite Runner. The author is a humanitarian worker and her depiction of the people and customs was well researched and rang true. The setting was done well and was amazingly rich. Afghanistan is almost a character in this novel.

The exploration of women in Afghanistan was inspiring. The women in this book often must do incredible things with little power. Afghanistan is a country where women are suppressed and yet the women in this book are heroes. They risk everything to help other women and to care for their families. The bonds they form with one another touched my heart. The lipstick in the title is symbolic of female empowerment and I really appreciated the symbolism it held especially as Elsa struggles with how she and other women are treated. People don't understand why she is not married. They have no concept of a career woman.

While I loved the setting and the character depth I also had several issues with this novel.

This is a debut novel and I found the prose frustrating to read. It is written in 3rd person and at times there is more telling than showing. Just overall I didn't jive with the writing of this book.

I also thought the story started too early. The book opens when Elsa is a child and I felt that was unnecessary. Her background could have been woven through the story and worked better. I felt like the beginning of the novel just meandered.

Another major issue I had was with the plot of this book. This book felt more like loosely connected vignettes than a book with an overarching plot. The plot of the book is Elsa goes to Afghanistan. She is a nurse there. Stuff happens. After six months she leaves.

Especially near the end of the book it seemed to me the story was in the weeds and things got convoluted and weird.

I felt like the book was missing the glue to hold the story it was trying to tell together. We got some amazing fragments but missed out on the whole.

I also was not a fan of the romance sub plot in this book.

Overall I don't feel I can recommend this book as a novel read for entertainment. If you want a novel that looks at the culture of Afghanistan and you are less concerned about story then this book may work well enough for you.

I knew I would like this book as soon as I read it's description on Netgalley. It is exactly the sort of memoir that I find interesting. I also think it is a very important book at a time when there is much prejudice around immigration and a lack of understanding relating to asylum seekers - in other words, a lack of understanding about what is actually going on in other parts of the world.

The book begins with the author describing her background and path into working for humanitarian aid agencies. This is followed by chapters describing her work firstly in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late 1980's followed by placements in Africa, Macedonia, Afghanistan again, Iraq and finally Sudan. The work is initially nursing in a clinic setting, but as the author became more experienced in humanitarian aid settings she began to be sent to war zones very early in the humanitarian effort to assess needs and recommend how aid agencies should proceed in the area. I found it to be a fascinating read throughout - not only are the needs of the people described but also the settings and living conditions.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

La conmovedora historia de una mujer de ofrecer ayuda y encontrar esperanza en el último lugar que esperaba. Atrapados por el frecuentar imágenes de revistas de los refugiados hambrientos, Elsa ha soñado con convertirse en una enfermera desde que era una adolescente. De dejar su humilde barrio obrero de Boston para ayudar a las personas cuyas vidas son mucho más difícil que la de ella. Nadie en su familia ha escapado alguna vez la pobreza, pero Elsa tiene un arma secreta: un lápiz labial que encontró en la oficina de su hermana mayor que no deja de aumentar su estado de ánimo y cimentar su determinación. Con el lápiz labial puede hacer cualquier cosa, incluso viajar sola a Afganistán desgarrado por la guerra como consecuencia de 9/11. Pero noches violentas como son las que vive una enfermera de urgencias en el sur de Boston no podrían preparar a Elsa de la devastación que es testigo en Kabul

The syntax was simplistic. The plot was a tad far-fetched. The characters were silly and one dimensional. The two saving graces of the book: the theme of human trafficking and the descriptions of life in Pakistan.

This novel is a light read on a dark topic. It is not very well written. It relies a lot on well worn phrases and expressions. Elsa, a Boston ER nurse heads to Bamiyan in Afghanistan. She has never done aid work before but quickly adapts to life in a war torn village. she makes friends and meets and falls in love with an American soldier.The novel does do a nice job of describing village life and the unfailing kindness of the Afgan people such as her friend Paween, Uncle Abdullah,and Hamid, It also shows how life is for women under the taliban, . An ill fated trip to check out a possible school site ends in tragedy and also marks the end of Elsa's mission.
It's too bad that the writing is so immature as the concept of the story is a good one.

Molto coinvolgente l'inizio, poi la trama si dipana come in tutti i libri romantici che si rispettano.

THE BRACELET begins with Abby, a UN aid worker witnessing what she believes to be a murder on her last night of training in Geneva. As Abby arrives in Pakistan to begin her UN work at the vaccination clinic, she finds that she can't get the woman who dies or the bracelet she was wearing out of her mind or her dreams. Abby ends up taking the UN job after two upheavals in her life. First, her job at a hospital in New Orleans is gone when Hurricane Katrina destroys the hospital. Then she starts a new life in Boston and when the man she expects to marry dumps her in an email, she believes the best thing for her is to focus on those with bigger problems than hers. She has no idea how big the problems she will face in Pakistan will be. Once there, Abby tries to focus on her work at the clinic, but after learning about the horrors of human trafficking and meeting with the victims, she begins to wonder if the woman who died in Geneva was one of the many unnamed victims.

With the murder of the young woman happening at the beginning of the book, you are instantly drawn in to the story. I was intrigued by the setting, the characters, and their individual stories. Once Abby arrives in Pakistan, the fast pace of the story kept me turning the pages all the way to the end.

The characters were well developed and I was able to create pictures of them in my mind,especially Nick the NY Times journalist, Najeela, the local UN worker, Hana, the housekeeper and Imtiaz, the sleezy uncle of Najeela. Each of the characters were essential to the story and the author doesn't bog the story down with unnecessary details or people to make it confusing.

Unfortunately, this story tells the horrors of human trafficking and the cases can be tough to read. But, the author takes care to share their realities with dignity and empathy. It is clear the author knows the ins and outs of this world-wide problem. I have to admit that I was pretty ignorant to the extent of human trafficking. Living in the privileged world makes these issues and the people suffering, invisible to us. You will want to learn more about this horrific crime after reading this novel.

Even though I figured out the connection between the murder in Geneva, Abby, and Pakistan, it didn't hasten my journey through the story and the chase to find the bad guys. I was intent on seeing them all brought to justice. Unfortunately, the reality is that there are millions suffering unimaginable horrors for years and it is likely that while I was reading this book, another child or woman was sold to a man that will continue the horror. Like the book said, the women who are in these situations believe there are not enough tears in her eyes or prayers to save her. I would like to believe that, through this book and the telling of their stories, we can begin to save them.

The Good:
This book highlights the horrors of human trafficking. Fast paced. Humorous.

The Bad:
Predictable romance. (Boy meets girl. Boy and girl immediately dislike each other. Until suddenly...they're in love!) Clueless protagonist. Unrealistic. Simple.

See more here:http://therelentlessreader.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-bracelet-by-roberta-gately.html

This book is about an American nurse who goes on assignment for the UN in Pakistan, witnessing a probable murder in Geneva on her way there that leaves her disturbed. Once in Pakistan, she meets a journalist who is investigating human trafficking in the area, gets involved helping some of the victims, and eventually the connection to the Geneva murder is revealed.

The topic is interesting and the writing style is pleasant, but my biggest complaint about this book is that many of the plot details are implausible and while they serve to neatly tie the story up the way the author wanted to, they leave the reader frustrated and disbelieving. For example, the chance of someone witnessing a murder while jogging in the business district of Geneva, and then subsequently ending up in a house with the murderer's fiancée in Pakistan is virtually nil. And the chance of the murderer letting her go when he has the chance to kill her, under the pretense that the fire would kill her is ridiculous, since she was already out of harm's way and just had to keep walking away from it and would be perfectly fine. And then to top it all off, the chance of the helicopter then blowing up and killing the murderer is hard to swallow since in reality, the helicopter would have flown away from the fire, not directly above it, and thus would never have been affected. All these details were just so unlikely that the whole book felt false and unconvincing.

Being a pragmatic person, this left me with a great sense of disappointment and frustration. So while the story had a lot of potential, it fell short for me on execution.

The cover of this book is so far removed from the topic it truly causes confusion. Every time I saw it I expected the book to be historical fiction. Additionally the woman depicted wearing the bracelet is of the wrong ethnicity. This has been pointed out quite a few times by other reviewers but I feel it's important; people often pick a book up due to its cover art and for a cover to be so disparate from its story does it a disservice.

Abby is a nurse who makes a habit of running away from life's difficulties. Her current difficulty has her running into a UN vaccination program in Pakistan to escape the loss of her job and the defection of her boyfriend. There she meets a brash Pulitzer Prize winner journalist ostensibly there to write a piece on the American aide worker - her. Nick rubs her the wrong way from the start and she doesn't trust him. He also has ulterior motives for being in the country - he is investigating human trafficking. A devastating world wide problem that Abby was totally ignorant of.

Prior to Abby's arrival in Peshawar she witnessed the fall of woman from a building in Geneva. Was it a murder? The only thing she knows for sure is that the woman was wearing a stunning gemstone bracelet. Abby remembers the bracelet in her nightmares (btw - she describes the bracelet in these passages referring to rubies, sapphires, diamonds and one large garnet. The photo on the cover shows a stunning cuff bracelet but from what I can see there isn't a sapphire to be seen. Rubies, diamonds and emeralds, yes - but no sapphires, nor a large garnet. Just sayin'.)
These nightmares plague her but no one believes her.

In Pakistan she meets her co-worker at the UN offices, Najeela. She is a very self centered woman who is only concerned with shopping, her fiance about whom her parents do not know and wouldn't approve and treating the less fortunate like dirt. She also meets the housekeeper Hana who ignores Abby.

This could have been a powerful book. It delves into one of the most haunting and urgent topics in today's world. And a topic that is largely ignored on a global level. According to the statistics in the book global trafficking is a 3 billion dollar a year business which is probably why it continues. Money talks as we all know. But this book places it in the midst of a middling romance story, the bracelet being a facile prop to tie it all up in a nice big bow. None of the characters are well developed; Abby takes a job in PAKISTAN and has NO IDEA of the conditions in the country?! Seriously?! Could she really be THAT stupid? Anyone who just watches a half hour of nightly news would know the conditions in the country.

The passages that detail the travails of the women - children really - who were trafficked are horrifying and not easy to read. It was the only part of the book with any depth at all. And even there Ms. Gately in attempts to lighten the story diminished her storytellers. It was a shame and unnecessary. Once the stories were told the book went back to being all superficial. I just wanted so much more from it.

Lipstick in Afghanistan” by Roberta Gately is fictional picture of rural Afghanistan through the eyes of nurse, Elsa and young woman named Parween. They develop a friendship that breaks through cultural boundaries and gives hope to the one and growth to the other.

It was difficult for me to understand the part about the lipstick. There is an emphasis on a tube of lipstick giving women a sense of importance and beauty. Although makeup is very important in Afghani weddings, it is not that important in daily life. After reading the interview with the author, it, I know that lipstick makes her feel better. Lipstick has a bigger role in the author’s life than mine; I will let it go at that.

The story is very engaging and educational. I learned more about the Taliban, how they even banned some of the joys of childhood. Also, some of the language, including the standard greeting:
"As-salaam alaikum. Chetore asti? Khoob asti? Jona jurast" which means "May peace be with you. How are you? You are well? How is your health?". Page 61.

Elsa, the nurse, came from an impoverished and rough neighborhood, and her family role was taking care of her disabled sister. She was a lonely person. Somehow she was very naïve about the dangers of war but she learned what she needed to know in Afghanistan with the help of the friends that she made.

Parween was a very intelligent, rebellious tom boy who could stand up against the boys for herself, betrothed at the age of 12, but relieved to know that she could ask for a better husband. She was thrilled when husband encouraged her to learn English.

The two women became inspired by a recent legend of a woman warrior against the Taliban. Their experiences made their friendship grow strong as they faced the demonic Taliban.

I highly recommend this book to people who would like to learn more about Afghanistan culture and some about the Taliban.

Lipstick in Afghanistan doesn’t make any pretense of being factual and it’s a darn good thing. The back cover promises it is “inspired by experiences as a nurse in third world war zones.” I can’t remember when I read a more heavy-handed book. It’s almost as if (wait for it…) the author colored all the Key Symbols in with bright red lipstick. Like, for example, well, lipstick. Lipstick is Female Connection and Beauty and Freedom in an Oppressive-to-Women World. Lipstick, all that? Really?

Oh my.
The Poignant Moments seem painted in lipstick, too. The American soldier sneaking in to make love to our main character in…a burkah? No one noticed that the soldier, described as magnificently tall with blazing blue eyes, is taller than, say the average tiny Afghan woman in a burkah? And the lovemaking is really going to be all-that with our main character taking a bath only every third day, a main character who occasionally finds a deadly scorpion in her bed? And, most unbelievable of all, is our main character and her Afghan friend traveling to a nearby village to check out whether or not a school should be built there. No one bothered to ask the American soldiers (or probably anyone else in a hundred-mile radius) whether the Taliban were located there. Boom. Boom. Our Afghan friend is gone, along with the heroic American soldier (husband and father of two, eagerly awaiting his return home in two months!) attempting to rescue her.

(By the way, I am giving nothing away. Believe you me, I am saving you hours of agony reading this book.)

I absolutely loved this book. I loved it so much that I can't think of the right words to describe it, at least not any that would do it justice. The story was so heartwarming, sad, happy, and touching. It was so sad and yet was filled with so much joy.

When I started reading it I didn't really expect the story that unfolded. At first I didn't understand the whole thing with the lipstick, but as the story progressed it was such a great way of tying the characters to each other.

The story jumps a between Elsa and Parween until their lives cross. The tragedy that follows each of these women seems almost unbearable, but yet they've pulled through it and made the most of their lives. Both women are so strong and give all they have to help others. Even putting their lives on the line to help those in need.

The romance that blooms throughout the book is such a great addition to the story. With so much devastation and sadness in the story adding the different romances kept the story enjoyable. Without the romance added in the story would have been so full of grief and sorrow that it would have almost been oppressive to read.

Overall I would say this is one of the best books I've ever read. Gately's writing is amazing. Her ability to tell a story like this is nothing short of amazing. It really makes you think. And it shows that just because people are surrounded by hatred, war, and fathom doesn't mean you have to fill your heart with those things. Happiness is what you make of it and these characters really made me realize that.

A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher. This is not a paid review and is a truthful and honest review.

The effects of years of war and conflict are poignantly portrayed in this debut novel. Drawing on her own experience as a nurse and aid worker in Afghanistan and other developing countries, the author creates a vivid believable story of the ethical and cultural dilemmas aid workers in third world countries face. She shows the strength and resilience necessary for the Afghanistan people to overcome and suppress the fears inherent in living in a war zone and instead find hope and the will to continue. The two main characters, one an aid nurse, the other a young local women give insight into the oppression and dominance Afghanistan women face and the empowering nature of friendship. Through their eyes the author contrasts the worst of humanity with the best and demonstrates the vast difference between the two cultures. The weakest part of the book was the love story; it just didn’t seem to fit Elsa’s character or the story in general. In summary, a great light read that’s well written and easy to read. I recommend to those who like reading about strong women, the effects of war, Afghanistan or enjoy a good story.

Review previously posted at: www.princetonbookreview.com

When looking at a magazine photograph of a starving family in Rwanda, young Elsa, living in Boston with her mother and disabled sister, vows to someday become someone who can help the needy people of this world. When she turns seventeen, her life suddenly turns around to follow that track when an ER nurse in a Boston Hospital helps her to understand the circle of life when Elsa’s baby sister dies. The continuing friendship between Elsa and the nurse blossoms into a mentor relationship, and soon Elsa herself becomes a talented ER nurse assisting with surgical and crisis trauma injuries. When Elsa’s mother dies in her sleep one night, she suddenly remembers the magazine photo she found fascinating as a child and begins to create a plan to follow her dream of one day helping desperate people.

In the wake of 9/11, Elsa volunteers as an overseas Aide nurse, taking up a position in a small village in Afghanistan that will use her nursing skills in their local clinic. Not totally thinking things through in regards to just where she is going and what dangers may lie there, Elsa embarks on the journey of her life as she soon integrates herself in the lives of a village full of kind and loving people. She immerses herself in learning the language and culture with new Afghani friends to help her, and within a short time becomes one with the people of Afghanistan.

All is not so rosy though. Elsa has touched down to the world of the Taliban where terror is instilled in the minds of the local people that hover in fear each night as they lay down to sleep. When the Taliban come to Elsa’s village, she is awakened in shock to the reality and danger she has put herself into. With the help of her new friends and with the assistance of American Soldiers on patrol, Elsa must dig deep into her soul to find her heart and place in a world of war and violence.

This is an extraordinary, beautiful, and poignant story of courage and heartache, love and renewal, faith and healing, among simple people who yearn for peace. Within this gem of a novel, you will find tender romance, newfound friends that bond for life, and will learn the ways of the Afghani as they teach Elsa to cook, pray, sew up their injured loved ones and bury their dead. Marriages are arranged, feasts and celebrations abound, babies are born, and brides are adorned with henna and veils. The reader becomes an eyewitness to the glorious kinship between two unlikely women from faraway places that share common ground all based on their love of lipstick! You will laugh, you will learn, you will worry and you will cry, as Roberta takes Elsa into a world unknown that becomes home.

All book club discussion groups should bring this to the top of the list for there is much to discuss and share here. For a debut novel, Roberta Gately’s Lipstick in Afghanistan should easily be climbing the bestseller lists at a rapid pace. Sensational book!

Afghanistan continues to capture our imagination here in this country. It is a world away and so very different. And yet people are people no matter where or how they live. Customs and lifestyles might be different but those are ultimately superficial differences. Certainly there are terrible people like the Taliban, driven to impose their unforgiving and restrictive views on everyone around them regardless of the cost in human terms. But not all Afghanis are Taliban although certainly the vast majority of them have been adversely touched by this zealotry by now.

Lipstick in Afghanistan is a novel that shows the resilience and strength of the Afghani people through the eyes of Elsa, an American nurse aid worker whose story intertwines with the local people. Elsa was raised without much but even as a teenager, she wants to give back, horrified, moved, and captivated by photos of war refugees. This drives her to become a nurse as an adult and she works for two years in a Boston ER before being eligible to apply for aid work. She is sent to Afghanistan, to Bamiyan to help out in the hospital. It is there that Elsa comes in close contact with the harsh realities of war, things for which even her time in a busy ER did not prepare her. But she also makes friends and starts to understand local customs, becoming particularly close to Parween, a young, widowed Afghani woman who speaks English thanks to her late husband's teaching. Elsa defies the rules about aid workers and soldiers fraternizing as she meets, befriends, and finally falls in love with an American soldier stationed in Bamiyan also. Despite seeing the fallout of war so closely, Elsa naively believes there to be no further danger, at least not any danger for her despite what her lieutenant tells her.

Elsa's underpriviledged upbringing in the States is woven through the narrative of her time in Afghanistan and while this background helps explain her drive to serve, as a plot thread, it really pales in comparison to the lives of the everyday people in Bamiyan, ultimately becoming fairly insignificant. The tragedy and sadness that so many endured and continue to endure pervades the tale of Elsa and Parween's friendship. Elsa and Mike's burgeoning relationship lends a lighter air to the narrative but the speed with which it occurs seems a bit underdeveloped in the plot. Lipstick as a talisman between friends is an interesting concept and combined with it as a small sign of insurrection against the Taliban, it is a powerful symbol.

Gately herself spent time working for an aid group in Afghanistan and she has drawn a grittily realistic picture of the devastation and hardship that has followed in the footsteps of war. It is clear that she admired the people she met in the country as her portrayals of her important, named Afghani characters is wholly sympathetic. The writing is at times a little clunky and simplistic but on the whole, this is an engaging story and one that humanizes. Readers looking for more novels set in the Middle East will enjoy this one, as will those in care-giver professions.½

This review first appeared on my blog: http://jewelknits.blogspot.com/2010/11/lipstick-in-afghanistan-by-roberta.html

This book tells the story of two women living in two continents with lives that at times parallel each other and later intersect. The first, Elsa, grows up in the rough neighborhood of Dorchester with a mother who works two jobs just to give them sustenance. She works at the library after school to help with family expenses and then runs home to take care of Diana, her 4-year-old disabled niece, just in time for her mother to go to her second job.

The second, Parween, grows up in Afghanistan. After losing their father to war, her mother moved with her and her two older brothers to Bamiyan. It is Afghan custom for the brother of a widow to marry her to keep the family cared for, Parween's father didn't have a brother, so they move in with Parween's uncle Abdullah. They are fortunate, because Abdullah is rather liberal, and the women of the house are allowed much freedom.

Both women lose childhood friends: Elsa's only friend, Annie, moves away, and Parween's best friend Mariam, is married off to an old man as his third wife at the age of fifteen, and moves to a village an hour's drive away.

Both women have an adoration for lipstick. Although Parween is not allowed to wear lipstick in public (other than for special celebrations), she loves the life it brings to her face. For Elsa, lipstick always lifts her spirits.

Elsa, after being mentored by a hospital nurse who took care of her niece Diana, becomes a nurse. She has always been determined to help those in need, so after a year as an ER nurse, she volunteers as an aide worker with Aide du Monde, a French aid organization based in New York. Five months after 9/11, she takes a position in Bamiyan, the home of the Buddhas.
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From About.com:

Bamyan (or Bamiyan), situated 240 kms northwest of Kabul between the snow-covered ranges of Koh-i Baba and Hindu Kush, is a small city lying in a beautiful valley containing the remarkable statues of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The kingdom of Bamiyan was a Buddhist state positioned at a strategic location along the silk road betwenn China and Europe.

The construction of the two statues was begun in the second century A.D. under the patronage of Emperor Kanishka and probably finished around the fifth century A.D. The height of the Small Buddha was 38 m, that of the Large Buddha 55 m. The figures of the two Buddhas were decorated with gold and fine jewels. Many caves were carved in the Bamiyan's cliffs in the same periods as the Buddhas. They were used as chapels and many monks lived there.
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From the UMW blog:

In March of 2001, the Taliban’s Mullah Omar reversed his former edict on Bamiyan’s famous colossal Buddha statues, calling now for total destruction. Calling them religious objects of idol worhipers, of which radical Islam believes must be destroyed at all costs, in the name of Allah, the Taliban shelled the Bamiyan cliffs for days with artillery. They finally managed to finish the Buddhas off with large amounts of dynamite. The cliffs, a famous tourist attraction and arguably Afghanistan’s most popular tourist destination, house not only the two largest statues of the Buddha in the world, but are also home to hundreds of caves. The caves once housed Buddhist monks, the very monks who spent centuries building the Buddhas in the cliff face. The interior of the caves are adorned with beautiful frescoes, now vandalized with Taliban shoe marks and covered in tar. Many of these caves were destroyed with the Buddhas.

The Hazara people of the Bamiyan Valley have long been persecuted by the Taliban because of their history of Taliban opposition. They do not see the attacks on the Buddhas as a religious conflict at all. To them it is a matter of cultural terrorism. The Taliban are set on humiliating them and destroying their cultural heritage. The Buddhas have been a part of their identity for centuries (even though the area is now Islamic) and the cornerstone of the local economy (stimulating tourism, bringing up to 100,000 tourists a year) so what better way to devastate the Hazara than blow up their statues?
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We read the story of Parween's marriage and her life, and we read of Elsa's transition to a life working at a clinic in a foreign country with few supplies, living in a house with no running water or electricity. Parween's story also tells us of the freedoms and lives lost when the Taliban descend on Bamiyan, and we learn more about how most Afghanis really feel about the Taliban.

There is so much wrapped up in this novel: romance, and loss, and friendship. For a while, I lived with both Elsa and Parween. At the end, I was wiping away tears. This is a well-written, fictionalized account of two strong women and what happens when they come together. Although the story's protagonists are women, this is a story that is gender-neutral. I think any person who loves to read a good book will love this one.

QUOTES:

She paused at a shiny picture of a nurse cradling a baby. The nurse seemed to be crying. The caption explained that the baby was dead and the nurse was looking for his mother.
A nurse, she thought, doing something that matters.

Fortunately, the workload was relatively light, and she rushed through the rest of her day. Then she hurried home to take a bath even though it had been only three days since her last one.
She hadn't been this clean since she'd arrived in Bamiyan

Finally, the plane appeared, slipping through the mountaintops and flying in low to land. Just then, an errant cow wandered onto the runway and the small plane was forced back into the sky. Villagers ran to the cow and coaxed him back off the dirt landing strip. Several minutes later, the plane finally landed, and the irate pilot jumped out to scream at the villagers about the cow.

(I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher to facilitate my review)