Details
Synopsis
This memoir of four years in Afghanistan following the defeat of the Taliban is by a former NPR reporter who gave up her job, stayed in Afghanistan, and worked for a non-governmental organization (NGO) to help rebuild the country. Sarah Chayes is as candid about the corruption she encountered as she is praising of the many well-intentioned, even heroic Afghanis who struggled to make a new country. She had access to those in power through her contacts with the Karzai family, and she spent time with average Afghani families as well as U.S. military personnel. In her rich portraits, her deep interest in the people and their history comes through.
Chayes's big story is that the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan was perhaps just as botched as the one in Iraq, though in a different way. Tribal strongmen moved in to fill the vacuum created by the fall of the Taliban and former Taliban fighters returned via Pakistan--with both groups wreaking great terror on the people. This occurred under the eyes of U.S. officials, who she says were complicit.
| Size | | Length: | 386 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 24.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
"[Chayes's] hands-on experience as a deeply immersed reporter and activist gives her lucid analysis and prescriptions a practical scope and persuasive authority."
(06/05/2006)
"As the most plugged in observer of the scene as well as the only person with top level contacts in every power structure, she was positioned to make a difference, and she did."
(08/20/2006)
"In elegant and incisive prose, [Sarah Chayes] brings to life the region's rich history, complex politics and proud ethnic Pashtun tribesmen....Far more than a travelogue, Chayes's book is a detailed critique of American policy in post-Taliban Afghanistan....If in the end, the American effort in southern Afghanistan fails, this important and insightful book will explain why."
(09/17/2006)
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