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Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story


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Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
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Average Customer Ratings: 4.54.54.54.54.5

The intimate and riveting chronicle of an extraordinarily courageous Afghan-American teenager coming of age in post-9/11 Afghanistan.

 

Building on two acclaimed radio documentaries aired on This American Life, Hyder Akbar tells how his ordinary suburban California life was turned upside-down after 9/11. Hyder’s father, a scion of an Afghan political family, sold his business—a hip-hop clothing store in Oakland—and left for Afghanistan, where he became President Hamid Karzai’s chief spokesman and later, the governor of Kunar, a rural province. Obsessed since youth with a country he had never even visited, seventeen-year-old Hyder convinced his father to let him join him on three successive summers. Working alongside his father at the presidential palace and in Kunar has given Hyder a rare front-row seat at the creation of democratic government in Afghanistan. In Come Back to Afghanistan, Hyder interweaves his personal journey—a teenager struggling with his identity in his parents’ homeland—with a dramatic behind-the-scenes account of political and civilian life in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Uncommonly wise and insightful, Hyder travels from palaces to prisons and from Kabul to the borderlands, revealing Afghanistan as readers have never seen or understood it before.

Said Hyder Akbar is currently a college student. He is also the co-director and founder of his own non-governmental organization, Wadan Afghanistan, which has rebuilt schools and constructed pipe systems in rural Kunar province.
 
Susan Burton is a contributing editor of This American Life, and a former editor at Harper’s. Her writing appears in the New York Times Magazine.
A YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
 
Said Hyder Akbar was living an extraordinary suburban life in California when the shocking events of September 11, 2001, turned his world upside down. After the fall of the Taliban, Hyder's father, a scion of an Afghan political family, sold his business—a hip-hop clothing store in Oakland—and left for Afghanistan, where he became President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman. Obsessed since youth with a country he had never even visited, seventeen-year-old Hyder convinced his father to let him join him during three successive summer vacations. In Afghanistan, Hyder witnessed a scarred county at a time of radical change, its hope for the future marred by blood feuds, poverty, and divided loyalties.
 
Working alongside his father in the presidential palace gave Hyder a front-row seat at the creation of Afghanistan's first post-Taliban government. Later, Hyder's father was appointed governor of Kunar, a volatile province that borders Pakistan. There, Hyder observed a world few Americans get to see, at one point serving as a translator at the secret U.S. military interrogation of a suspected terrorist who later died in custody.
 
Throughout his travels in Afghanistan, Hyder carried a minidisc recorder; he kept it rolling even as he ducked for cover on the floor of a U.S. military Humvee during a twenty-minute ambush. His radio documentaries, which aired on This American Life, have garnered several awards, including an Overseas Press Club citation. The immediacy of these recordings is captured in this book, in which Hyder interweaves this personal journey—a teenager struggling with his identity in his parents' homeland—with a dramatic behind-the-scenes account of political and civilian life in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
"[An] engaging and informative account of Afghan life and politics interwoven with a teen's reactions to his first visit to his family's native land. Because of [Hyder's] background and connections, his interest and knowledge of Afghan history and politics, and his language skills, Akbar was involved in his father's work in ways that most teens can only dream of. Readers are rewarded with an inside look at Afghan reconstruction that is both informative and appealing. The teen admires his father and his father's friends immensely; he dreams of being personally involved in nation-building. Readers will come away from this memoir with a strong desire to see into the young man's future and that of the country that has so entranced him."—School Library Journal, starred review
"Straddling cultures, Akbar presents an intimate portrait of a nation at a crossroads."—Condé Nast Traveler
 
"Said Hyder Akbar is so engaging, so funny, so different from everyone else who normally reports this kind of story, that Come Back to Afghanistan is irresistible. Hyder wanders around observing life and cracking jokes and translating for U.S. troops and getting shot at. He takes us to a place most of us would normally dread reading about, and by the end, we really care badly about what will happen next in Afghanistan. That's a rare and special thing."—Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life
 
"Refreshingly candid, Akbar worries about Afghanistan's poverty but remains hopeful."—GQ
 
"Said Hyder Akbar's absorbing memoir of witnessing democracy's struggle in Afghanistan is both heartbreaking and hilarious. Akbar provides a wry, intimate account of the battle for the soul of Afghanistan. His book offers profound truths about U.S. policy in the Middle East from the sharp-eyed perspective of a young Afghan-American. Akbar nails the warped reality of present-day Afghanistan, offering a wild ride into the chasm between American and Afghan cultures being forcibly conjoined on Middle Eastern soil."—Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill
 
"Said Hyder Akbar is like the young Ibn Batuta, the great traveler of the medieval world, leaving the comforts of home to venture where few dare and sharing with his readers the treasures of his journey through his writings. Come Back to Afghanistan is our passport to the frontlines in the battle for the soul of Afghanistan. We're lucky Said Hyder Akbar made the trip for us."—Asra Nomani, author of Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam
 
"Every once in a while a book comes along that is so dynamic and unique and pulses with such energy that you want to rave about it to everyone you know. Said Hyder Akbar's Come Back to Afghanistan is one of those books. Akbar's true-life adventures, told with great humor and a sensational eye for detail, captivate you from the very start. But the humanity and power of his story stay with you long after you've finished the last page. It is astonishing that this is his first book."—Andrew Carroll, author of War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars
 
"By turns funny, insightful and, occasionally, breathtaking."—Kirkus Reviews

"Engrossing . . . balances sophisticated political and social observations, astonishing for someone so young, with irresistible flashes of teen enthusiasm."—Booklist
 
"After the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, Afghans living in exile began to return home in hopes of participating in rebuilding their war-torn country. Akbar's father sold his hip-hop clothing store in Oakland to join his friend Hamid Karzai, now the elected president, serving first as his spokesman and later as the governor of the remote province of Kunar. The author joined him right after he finished high school and spent three summers, first in Kabul and then in Asadabad, the provincial capital. The young man traveled through the countryside and across the mountainous border into Pakistan. Equipped with a microphone and recorder, he chronicled his experiences and his reactions for public radio's 'This American Life.' These immediate observations form the basis of this engaging and informative account of Afghan life and politics interwoven with a teen's reactions to his first visit to his family's native land. Because of his background and connections, his interest and knowledge of Afghan history and politics, and his language skills, Akbar was involved in his father's work in ways that most teens can only dream of. Readers are rewarded with an inside look at Afghan reconstruction that is both informative and appealing. The teen admires his father and his father's friends immensely; he dreams of being personally involved in nation-building. Readers will come away from this memoir with a strong desire to see into the young man's future and that of the country that has so entranced him."—School Library Journal, starred review
 
"An exceedingly, commendably unique eyewitness account of a country in transition, told by a charming young narrator."—Publishers Weekly



DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047
EAN: 9781582345208
ISBN: 1582345201
Label: Bloomsbury USA
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2005-11-10
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Release Date: 2005-10-13
Studio: Bloomsbury USA


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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating: 55555
Summary: A History Lesson Upclose and Personal
Comment: The book's title was intriguing and it did not disappoint!
In fact, I kept turning to the back cover to check the photo of the teenager, Said Hyder Akbar, in amazement. I found his writing profound for a boy of seventeen.

That he had the ability to record in such detail the events he experienced during summers as his father's trusted companion within the fledgling Hamid Karzai Government of Afghanistan was amazing.

While reading this book, I could easily put myself in his place, a young American who fit into two worlds well.
He was an insider with the US Army, and with his father's Pashtun People, trusted by both, believing the best about both.

This story shows life as it is in Kunar Province and Kabul, often disappointing, dangerous, full of infighting, distrust.

It is a wonderful way to learn about history from the perspective of one young American boy.
Its point of view is mostly postive about the Karzai Govt.,

Customer Rating: 55555
Summary: Great and Accurate Descriptions
Comment: An absolutely fabulous book! The descriptions of the country are phenomenal and place you in the country! Having been to many of the places that the author describes I can attest to the accuracy. He also does an amazing job describing the political situation, the corruption that is indemic to the nation and the problems that the common Afghan faces as the nation transitions to a representative democracy. The author does a very good job of explaining the difficulties faced when trying to change villages that are akin to what was found during Medieval times. One particularly good depiction is found in the quote, "Yet in some sense, it's absurd to expect the capital to effectively manage the countryside; the central government can hardly handle itself." Although the author is obviously one of the privledged class of Afghans in that he can afford to travel from California back to Kabul for three consequtive summers, he still manages to accurately describe the issues faced by the exceptionally poor and illiterate majority of the citizens of Afghanistan. I would strongly recommend this novel to anyone interesting in gaining a very good perspective of the country, the villages, the government and the problems facing all of the nations that are contributing fiscal resources and their daughters and sons in an effort to transition Afghanistan from a failed State to some sort of democracy.

Customer Rating: 44444
Summary: Gripping and accessible.
Comment: You can tell that this was written by a teenager, but the casual tone is refreshing and makes for a better read, in my opinion. The author does a terrific job of making some very complicated situations and people easily comprehensible.

I read this book fast. Not because it was an easy read, but because I couldn't *stop* reading it.

Customer Rating: 55555
Summary: A fascinating an accessable story of the rebuilding of Afghanistan
Comment: This book will take its place among my favorite books about Afghanistan. The author has an amazing story of three summers spent helping his father in Afghanistan after September 11th and the fall of the Taliban. Said Hyder Akbar's father brought his family to Pakistan and then America after the Soviet invasion but worked with the Mujahudeen during the Soviet occupation. His father knew Hamid Karzai and worked as his press secretary (2002) and then governor of Kunar (2003-2004). Said Hyder Akbar started coming over to work with his father starting the summer of his junior year in High School.

Being raised in America allows him to communicate the unique culture of Afghanistan to a US audience in a very accessible way. Having spent a year working with the Afghan Army I was fascinated to hear the perspective of someone would could articulate the perspective of ordinary Afghans interacting with US Soldiers and trying to rebuild their country.

Said Hyder Akbar's writing has great humor and candidness about it. His descriptions of the complex issues his father faced in governing a remote province on the Pakistan border are fascinating and illuminating of the problems that face rebuilding all of Afghanistan. He brings out the struggle and weariness of the people who have fought for over two decades and just want to have life without war. As noted above his description of the difficulties faced by US soldiers in interacting with an unfamiliar culture are spot on and very perceptive.

This book was written with Susan Burton of This American Life and anyone who likes this radio (and now TV) program will recognize the wit and power of that show in this book. It is a must read for any westerner who wishes to have a better understanding of the Afghan culture.


Customer Rating: 55555
Summary: A book that is well paced, well written, and chuck full of adventure!
Comment: Said Hyder Akbar is a surprisingly strong writer for his age. The way that he leads the reader into this exotic world is amazing. One genuinely gets to feel some of the things that are in the news as far as the conflict near Pakistan's border. Although the book was written in 2006 many of his observations ring true to this day. If you are interested in Afghanistan/Pakistan make sure to read this book becuase it will not dissapoint you.
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