Shadow City

£9.99

When Indian journalist Taran Khan arrives in Kabul in 2006, she imagines it as a return – a journey to the land her forebears hailed from centuries ago. She finds an unexpected guide in her grandfather who – despite never visiting the city – knows it intimately through books and stories, poetry and myth. With his voice in her head, and falling in with poets, doctors and other Kabulis, Khan uncovers a place quite different from the one she anticipated. Her wanderings reveal a fragile city in a state of flux: stricken by near-constant war, but flickering with the promise of peace, a shape-shifting place governed by age-old codes but experimenting with new modes of living. These walks take her to the unvisited tombs of the dead, and to the land of the living: the booksellers, archaeologists, intrepid film-makers and entrepreneurs who are remaking and rebuilding this ancient 3000-year-old city.

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SKU: 9781784708023 Category: Tags: , ,

Description

‘A fabulous piece of writing . . . I recommend it unreservedly’ WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

‘A brilliant book’ CHRISTINA LAMB, author of Farewell Kabul

One of the first things I was told when I arrived in Kabul was never to walk…

When journalist Taran Khan arrives in Kabul, she uncovers a place that defies her expectations. Her wanderings with other Kabulis reveal a fragile city in a state of flux: stricken by near-constant war, but flickering with the promise of peace; governed by age-old codes but experimenting with new modes of living.

Her walks take her to the unvisited tombs of the dead, and to the land of the living – like the booksellers, archaeologists, film-makers and entrepreneurs who are remaking this 3,000-year-old city. And as NATO troops begin to withdraw from the country, Khan watches the cycle of transformation begin again.

**Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award 2021**
**Winner of the Tata Literature Live First Book Award for Non-Fiction 2020**

‘Powerfully evocative’ Kapka Kassabova

‘A wonderful journey’ Atiq Rahimi

‘Khan illuminates Kabul’s life-affirming humanity’ TLS

Read a sample here

Additional information

Weight 0.232 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 1.8 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

304

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

958.1047 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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