“From
squatting inside a cave in the head of a Bamyan Buddha to escaping
torture at the teeth of a dog and his master, Qais Akbar Omar’s tale of
one family’s journey during the Afghan civil war is inscriptional: its
images carve themselves into the reader’s mind. Unlike most accounts of
life in exile, A Fort of Nine Towers never leaves Afghanistan, as a boy
and his family remain trapped within the nation’s borders by familial
ties and by war. This book is essential reading for anyone eager to
learn what more than three decades of war have cost the Afghan people.”
Eliza Griswold, author of The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam
“I know of no other book in which the complex realities of life—and death—in contemporary Afghanistan are so starkly and intimately portrayed. This brave memoir, rich in tough humor and insight, recounts an insider’s view into both the suffering and the integrity of an uncompromisingly proud and courageous people. Above all, it is a powerful reminder of the extraordinary tenacity of a culture that foreigners have repeatedly and fatally misjudged.”
Jason Elliot, author of An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
Qais Akbar Omar (whose first name is pronounced “Kice”) manages his family’s carpet business in Kabul and writes books. In 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado. He has studied business at Brandeis University and is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Boston University. Omar has lectured on Afghan carpets in Afghanistan, Europe, and the United States. He is the coauthor, with Stephen Landrigan, of Shakespeare in Kabul.




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