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by William V. Barlak (Author)
To understand a person, or a place or a country we always gather information about what happened before. There is always a past to any present. Yet there is little about the people, how they lived and thought. What was the culture that was there before the wars? Much has changed but many things remain. What are the basics of the culture that still lie beneath the public veneer? Afghanistan Stories offers views to a stunningly different country, a time warp.
These stories are either the authors experiences or were told to him by reputable people. He worked in Afghanistan in the 1970's, three years as a Peace Corp Volunteer and then another four in the area. It is not a usual Peace Corp memoir but is more a collection of varied, first-hand experience, short stories.
The media, the experts, the elites, the politicians have long spoken about the sensational, of events, of wars, and history. And the experts all have claimed that they are right. This wide-ranging collection of true stories unveils the lives of real people and events from that different time. They offer manifold glimpses into the rich diverse heritage that has made up the culture. Hindus, Zoroastrians, Christians, Local Faiths, Buddhists, now Islam have been home here. One can add Alexander the Great, The Silk Road, Rumi's family were Buddhist scholars here, and even Buddha got his clothes here, great Sufis and Persian language poets. It was and is the meeting point of the three neighboring great cultures.
These days there is isolation and quiet, the youth are being taught and the everyday people try to survive. What does the future hold? The past is a key.
"I want to tell you how exquisite your chapter on "The Party" was! One of the most beautiful chapters I ever read in any book. This collection of sharp impression of living three years in Afghanistan, with irresistible titles, like "Where Buddha Got His Clothes", "Goat", "Foreigners as Amusement", "Books, Problems With Thinking, and the Gardens of Nimla" . . . by this gifted American author is excellent! An enchanting read!"
-Jim Ivory, Academy Award, Director Merchant Ivory Productions
"The author worked in Afghanistan many years ago, but his stories are really timeless. They unveil a hidden spiritual world with important lessons for us today. His book reveals Afghanistan to be a geode -an ordinary looking, even battered and rough stone, which conceals wondrous crystals within."
-Dr. Allan Chinen, Jungian Psychiatrist, Professor, Author, The Muses of Truth and Transformation
"Afghanistan Stories takes us along into a journey into Afghan life seen from the eyes of not an American but someone with a soul and heart connection to the land and its people. The stories are written with the most beautiful descriptive, painterly language that the reader literally can taste the food, see all the colors he sees and even smell the scents that he has experienced throughout his journey into a place and time that could never be again. He describes an Afghanistan rarely experienced by westerners, before the wars, a place fairly unchanged"
-Matin Maulawizada, Makeup Artist, Co-founder of Afghan Hands
