Bøker av Qais Akbar Omar

For den unge Qais Akbar Omar var Kabul først byen med den store hagen. Her satte han opp drager med sin fetter Wakeel fra taket til bestefarens hus. Her bodde han sammen med foreldrene, onkler og tanter, fettere og kusiner. Det var en paradisisk tilværelse med poesiopplesninger, vakre tepper og familiesammenkomster.Så starter borgerkrigen, og de befinner seg i skjæringspunktet av kampene. Dag for dag blir konflikten mer blodig. Til slutt må storfamilien flykte, og de finner ly i en gammel festning som tilhører en venn av familien. Krigen innhenter dem, og de prøver gang på gang å flykte ut av landet.Underveis bor de i de gamle hulene bak de nå ødelagte Buddha-statuene, og søker tilflukt hos slektninger blant nomadene. Omars ungdomstid tilbringes på flukt, men underveis lærer en døvstum ung kvinne ham å veve. Slik finner han det som skal bli meningen med livet hans.Qais Akbar Omar forteller på sin personlige måte hva tre tiår med krig har gjort med Afghanistan og et stolt folk. "Og festningen hadde ni tårn" er en av de få selvbiografiske fortellingene som er skrevet av en afghaner. Omars historie gir et nært og sterkt innblikk i en kultur som er både eksotisk og fengslende, og som ingen krig har klart å ta helt knekken på.]]>

In 2005, everything seemed possible in Afghanistan. The Taliban was gone. A new government had been elected. A cultural renaissance was energizing the country. An actress visiting from Paris casually proposed to some Afghan actors in Kabul: Why not put on a play? The challenges were huge. It had been thirty years since men and women had appeared on stage together in Afghanistan. Was the country ready for it? Few Afghan actors had ever done theater. Did they even know how? They had performed only in films and television dramas. Still, a company of actors gathered--among them a housewife, a policewoman, and a street kid turned film star. With no certainty of its outcome, they set out on a journey that would have life-changing consequences for all of them, and along the way lead to A Night in the Emperor's Garden.

'To read this book is to understand Afghanistan as it exists today. This haunting memoir traces the unimaginable odyssey of one family whose world has collapsed . . . Poetic, powerful, and unforgettable.' Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner.Qais Akbar Omar was eleven when a brutal civil war engulfed Kabul. For Qais, it brought an abrupt end to a childhood filled with kites and cousins in his grandfather's garden: one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan history had begun. Ahead lay the rise of the Taliban, and, in 2001, the arrival of international forces.A Fort of Nine Towers is the story of Qais, his family and their determination to survive these upheavals as they were buffeted from one part of Afghanistan to the next. Drawing strength from each other, and their culture and faith, they sought refuge for a time in the Buddha caves of Bamyan, and later with a caravan of Kuchi nomads. When they eventually returned to Kabul, it became clear that their trials were just beginning.