Confessions of a Mullah Warrior » (Bargain)

Born in 1969 in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, Masood Farivar fought in the anti-Soviet resistance in the late 1980s before attending Harvard University, from which he received a degree in history and politics. His journalism has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, and Soldier of Fortune. He lives in Afghanistan.

Masood Farivar was ten years old when his childhood in peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan was shattered by the Soviet invasion in 1979. Farivar, who was born into a long line of religious and political leaders who have shaped his nation’s history for centuries, fled to Pakistan with his family and came of age in refugee schools. At eighteen, he defied his parents and returned home to join the jihad, fighting beside not only the Afghan mujahideen but also Arab and Pakistani volunteers. When the Soviets withdrew, Farivar moved to America and attended the prestigious Lawrenceville School, Harvard, and ultimately became a journalist in New York. In this dramatic and timely memoir, Farivar draws on his unique experience as a native Afghan, a former mujahideen fighter, and a longtime U.S. resident to provide unprecedented insight into the recent collision between Islam and the West. He paints a vibrant portrait of his family and his nation’s history, exposes the world of militant Islam by taking us deep inside the madrassas, vividly recounts his experiences on the battlefield at Tora Bora and elsewhere, and movingly conveys the culture shock of a Muslim living in contemporary America.

Publishers Weekly

One would be forgiven for assuming that the reader of Farivar's memoir of war, religious fundamentalism and escape is, like its author, a native Afghan. With his mellifluous accent, and Britain-by-way-of-Kabul pronunciation, Christopher Lane superbly echoes the sound of Afghan English without any shade of parody. The result is a deeper immersion in Farivar's story of growing up in the relatively peaceful Afghanistan that predated the Soviet invasion of 1979, his time spent passionately devoted to the Qur'an in a religious school, and his studies at an East Coast prep school and Harvard after his arrival in the United States. An Atlantic Monthly hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 20). (Mar.)