by Saima Wahab
First published 2012
Saima Wahab returns to Afghanistan as an American contractor after fleeing as a child refugee. At three years old, she watched the KGB arrest her father in Kabul. She never saw him again. Her uncle brought her to America at fifteen, where she learned English and earned her degree in just three years. In 2004, she signs on as a Pashto interpreter with coalition forces. Saima discovers that American soldiers know almost nothing about the Pashtun people, who make up forty percent of Afghanistan's population and gave rise to the Taliban. Military commanders routinely send Farsi interpreters into Pashtun villages, creating dangerous misunderstandings. As one of the few college-educated female Pashto speakers in the country, Saima finds herself uniquely positioned to explain each culture to the other. She ventures into hostile villages with her twenty-five-soldier protection unit, facilitating the first honest conversations between American forces and Pashtun elders. From her base in western Farah to translating for Governor Sherzai in Jalalabad to near-suicide missions in Khost Province, Saima navigates between her birth country and adopted homeland, seeking understanding across ancient divides.
Genres: history, american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, military-history, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Afghanistan, America, Kabul, Farah, Jalalabad, Khost Province
Period: 2004, 3 years old
352 pages · Unknown Binding · Crown