Book set in Afghanistan – 99 Nights in Logar
Novel set in Afghanistan with Jamil Jan Kochai
It is 2005 in Logar, Afghanistan, and twelve-year-old Marwand has returned from America with his family for the summer. He loses the tip of his finger to the village dog, Budabash. From that moment on, he has 99 days to find the dog and his finger..
You can’t argue that that is not a unique premise!
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Susan: @thebooktrailer
From this start, I realised this was going to be a unique novel. And I wasn’t sure if that was going to be in a good way or not. I mean, it’s about a boy who returns to Afghanistan with his mother. His family returns to the village they are from but Marwand is of course American and has never really seen his homeland. Once back in his family’s country, the village dog takes the tip of his finger, then the dog disappears and he and his cousins go on a quest to find it. It’s a way of discovering every nook and cranny of a place I guess!
It was a good back to roots kind of read and these kind of stories always fascinate me. People are formed and made from their experiences, where they are born, raised and where they move to. I loved it how Marward at first struggled with his family’s mother tongues of Pashto and Farsi but then became almost fluent. If I had foreign born parents, I always like to think I would learn my mum and dad’s mother tongue even if I’d never lived there.
Looking back at Afghanistan in 2005 and through the eyes of a young boy was a cultural and language based treat. I think a glossary of the vocabulary would have been nice although most if not all can be guessed from context. I work with languages though so work with words in context all the time. Others ie most, don’t so might find some things a little unclear.
It’s not a straight forward coming of age story. It’s a story within a story within another story with tales and legends leading off from that like streams from a river. The novel flows well too which is good given that image I ‘ve just conjured up to describe it! An Arabian Nights style coming of age story?
There’s a lot to like here.
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Twitter: @jamiljankochai Web: www.jamiljankochai.com/
