Critical Response to A Fort of Nine Towers
Letter to Readers: http://www.picador.com/blogs/2013/5/D...
“If you read only one book this summer, make it this one.”
Oprah
“Beautifully written, with the pacing and suspense of a novel ... his richly detailed account of growing up in Afghanistan under the warlords and then the Taliban is deeply fulfilling, remarkable not least because he lived to tell the tale.”
The Washington Post
“Mind-boggling yet matter-of-fact, A Fort of Nine Towers is the memoir of a childhood in '90s Afghanistan – a riveting story of war as seen through a child's eyes and summoned from an adult's memory.”
The New York Times Book Review
Qais, a Kabul-born Pashtun carpet maker, as it turns out, is one of the most compelling memoirists to emerge out of the country's troubles in recent memory... In A Fort of Nine Towers, Qais...offers a forceful account of coming of age at the height of Afghanistan's civil war, becoming a man under the Taliban, and learning to rebuild amid the uncertainty of a post-9/11 world.
Candace Rondeaux, Foreign Policy
“A Fort of Nine Towers captures a time and a place unknown to most Americans ... graphic, certainly, but it's also sweet and funny and inspiring.”
The Boston Globe
“The painful, sometimes funny human complexities of such anecdotes make Omar's book more than simply an eye-opening account of a terrible period in recent history, though it's valuable enough as that.”
Newsday, New York
“Here at last is a powerful, haunting memoir that does justice to [Afghanistan’s] tough, tenacious and astonishingly good-humoured people. The best thing about it . . . is that it is a book about Afghanistan written by an Afghan.”
London Evening Standard
“The book, by a young Afghan, Qais Akbar Omar, is an extraordinary memoir that portrays his coming of age during a time of madness.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“…exhilarating and unsettling, because this is Omar's lived experience, and one that is far stranger than fiction, though written in surprisingly refined prose for a writer who taught himself English to become an interpreter for Coalition soldiers.”
The Independent, London
“Omar crosses the divides that make Afghans so frustratingly exotic to tell a universal story of survival and the power of family.”
The Toronto Star
“A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar is a beautifully written memoir about growing up in Afghanistan during the time of the civil wars, and the Taliban-one of the few books written about Afghanistan by an Afghan.”
The Denver Post
“Qais's narrative cuts through hardened pro- or anti-war biases to record both the pain and pride that remain the hallmark of so many Afghans.”
The Daily Beast
“As Omar recounts in his new memoir, A Fort of Nine Towers, life in Afghanistan is full of rich culture, family tradition and storytelling ... [it] is Omar's attempt to heal the rift in understanding between our two cultures.”
Bookish
“As lyrical as it is haunting, this mesmerizing, not-to-be-missed debut memoir is also a loving evocation of a misunderstood land and people.”
Kirkus Review, published in the Austin American Statesman
“... His prose is deliciously forthright, extravagant, somewhat mischievous, and very Afghan in its sense of long-suffering endurance and also reconciliation.”
Publisher's Weekly
“It's as if the author, 29 at the time of writing, has closed his eyes to recall the essence of events that are burned into his memory from age 7 to young adulthood. He chooses both chilling and loving details that convey his emotion without cluttered analysis...”
The New Mexican, Santa Fe
“Mr. Omar's new book, A Fort Of Nine Towers, is a poetic, funny and terrifying memoir of life in Kabul between the Soviet Army's exit and the Taliban's retreat.”
The Economist
“Qais Akbar Omar, a young carpet merchant in Kabul, has written an autobiography that is among the best to emerge from Afghanistan ... One of this memoir's virtues is that it captures the chaos and depredations of the era.”
The Globe and Mail. Toronto
“Omar is a weaver not only of tales but also of fine rugs, and like all good tales it mixes enchantment with terror.”
Lancette Arts Journal
“This is an insider’s intimate view of a battered but beautiful country and of families that have the same cares and values as our own.”
Guelph Mercury, Ontario, Canada
“This book is important. It is vital. It is so simple, so honest, and so very, very real.”
LitStack
“Omar's beautifully written book is an affecting account of survival in the midst of brutality and fear, and a testament to the importance of family and friendships in a place where neighbours turned on neighbours.”
The Sunday Times, London
“Qais Akbar Omar's memoir sets out . . . to show us the ordinary Afghanistan as well as the horror . . . Yet for all the horrors he has seen and the loved ones he has lost, there is no desire for vengeance in this account, only a profound stoicism.”
The Times, London
“The story of Qais's family and their remarkable survival . . . As he shares this long journey, through terror, loss, heartbreak, and sudden moments of joy, Qais's spirit still shines.”
Queensland Times, Australia
“Afghan author Qais Akbar Omar’s story tugs at the heartstrings yet it is not maudlin or sentimental, only nostalgic and deeply evocative of his way of life . . . His moving story will broaden your focus and understanding of an oft-maligned country.”
The Chronicle, Toowoomba, Australia
“A story of a supportive family surviving against unbelievable odds.”
Illawarra Mercury, Australia
“What ultimately shines through in this book is the powerful and positive spirit of Qais and his family.”
The New Indian Express, Delhi
“A carpet weaver with an extraordinary tale. But then only a few must have had a childhood like Qais Akbar Omar’s.”
The Week, New Delhi
“A Fort of Nine Towers is a profoundly touching memoir of a boy growing up during the last three tumultuous decades in an Afghanistan that bears testimony to extreme brutality and unmeasured compassion.”
The Asian Age, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, London
“The story of Qais Akbar Omar is no ordinary tale.”
Sakal Times, Pune, India
“If you have an ungrateful teenager on your hands, get them a copy of A Fort of Nine Towers. I guarantee that their view of life will change for the better after reading this book.”
Afghan Blog
Radio Interviews:
The World, PRI/BBC
“Qais Akbar Omar. He’s written a memoir about his tumultuous youth in Afghanistan. It’s called A Fort of Nine Towers. It begins in Kabul, where Omar spent some idyllic childhood years growing up with 25 cousins within his grandfather’s lush, walled estate.”
http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/afgha...
The Diane Rehm Show, NPR
"A Fort of Nine Towers, a memoir of growing up in Afghanistan. The journey one family takes as they attempt to flee decades of violence and find hope in their homeland." http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/201...
The Current, with Anna Maria Tremonti, CBC Radio Canada
"He was eight years old when the warlords took over his neighbourhood setting in motion a terrifying series of events that saw Qais Akbar Omar and his family wander through Afghanistan in search of a safe haven. Qais Akbar Omar on his childhood memories." http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/The+Cu...
The Forum, BBC World Service
"Qais says that in Afghanistan, everyone is a storyteller, and you shape your stories to fit your situation."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p019bxtf
Leonard Lopate, WNYC Radio
“Qais Akbar Omar talks about growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, in his memoir,
A Fort of Nine Towers, which reveals the richness and suffering of life in that country.... As the Mujahedin war devolved into Taliban rule, Omar learned about quiet resistance, and opened a secret carpet factory to provide work for neighborhood girls."
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2013...
Christopher Lydon, Radio Open Source
"Qais Akbar Omar might persuade you that ‘poetry is the essence of Afghanistan,’ and that story telling is still the soul of the place. He is giving us a young Afghan writer’s impressions of boyhood in heaven and a civil war in hell.”
http://www.radioopensource.org/qais-a...
Endorsements:
“The first true-life memoir of growing up in Kabul, this is both a magical and a chilling book which conveys the strength of family in truly terrible times. Definitely on my recommend list for 2013.”
Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent, The Sunday Times, London, and author of The Sewing Circles of Herat.
“At a time when Afghanistan threatens to recede into a bloody and debased footnote, Qais Akbar Omar reminds us of the honor and courage of his people. A remarkable feat of memory and imagination.”
Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, author of The Watch and The Storyteller of Marrakesh
“In this stark, unflinching memoir, Qais Akbar Omar illuminates the beauty and tragedy of a country pushed to the brink by war. A Fort of Nine Towers gives voice to the unbreakable spirit of the Afghan people.”
G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen
“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
“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
“The product of an immensely talented writer, A Fort of Nine Towers puts a human face on the violent history of Afghanistan”
Rachel Newcomb, author of Women of Fes and The Gift
“This is a book for those who love Afghanistan, for those who want to understand it, or simply for those who value deeply the best in the human spirit. It is a tale that deserves to rank with The Kite Runner.”
Ronald E. Neumann, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and
president of the American Academy of Diplomacy
An autographed copy of A Fort of Nine Towers, brought a $5,000 donation Tuesday night at a fund-raiser for the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. Within minutes, five more copies of the book generated $1,000 each. http://rugknot.com/fundraiser-educati...
“If you read only one book this summer, make it this one.”
Oprah
“Beautifully written, with the pacing and suspense of a novel ... his richly detailed account of growing up in Afghanistan under the warlords and then the Taliban is deeply fulfilling, remarkable not least because he lived to tell the tale.”
The Washington Post
“Mind-boggling yet matter-of-fact, A Fort of Nine Towers is the memoir of a childhood in '90s Afghanistan – a riveting story of war as seen through a child's eyes and summoned from an adult's memory.”
The New York Times Book Review
Qais, a Kabul-born Pashtun carpet maker, as it turns out, is one of the most compelling memoirists to emerge out of the country's troubles in recent memory... In A Fort of Nine Towers, Qais...offers a forceful account of coming of age at the height of Afghanistan's civil war, becoming a man under the Taliban, and learning to rebuild amid the uncertainty of a post-9/11 world.
Candace Rondeaux, Foreign Policy
“A Fort of Nine Towers captures a time and a place unknown to most Americans ... graphic, certainly, but it's also sweet and funny and inspiring.”
The Boston Globe
“The painful, sometimes funny human complexities of such anecdotes make Omar's book more than simply an eye-opening account of a terrible period in recent history, though it's valuable enough as that.”
Newsday, New York
“Here at last is a powerful, haunting memoir that does justice to [Afghanistan’s] tough, tenacious and astonishingly good-humoured people. The best thing about it . . . is that it is a book about Afghanistan written by an Afghan.”
London Evening Standard
“The book, by a young Afghan, Qais Akbar Omar, is an extraordinary memoir that portrays his coming of age during a time of madness.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“…exhilarating and unsettling, because this is Omar's lived experience, and one that is far stranger than fiction, though written in surprisingly refined prose for a writer who taught himself English to become an interpreter for Coalition soldiers.”
The Independent, London
“Omar crosses the divides that make Afghans so frustratingly exotic to tell a universal story of survival and the power of family.”
The Toronto Star
“A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar is a beautifully written memoir about growing up in Afghanistan during the time of the civil wars, and the Taliban-one of the few books written about Afghanistan by an Afghan.”
The Denver Post
“Qais's narrative cuts through hardened pro- or anti-war biases to record both the pain and pride that remain the hallmark of so many Afghans.”
The Daily Beast
“As Omar recounts in his new memoir, A Fort of Nine Towers, life in Afghanistan is full of rich culture, family tradition and storytelling ... [it] is Omar's attempt to heal the rift in understanding between our two cultures.”
Bookish
“As lyrical as it is haunting, this mesmerizing, not-to-be-missed debut memoir is also a loving evocation of a misunderstood land and people.”
Kirkus Review, published in the Austin American Statesman
“... His prose is deliciously forthright, extravagant, somewhat mischievous, and very Afghan in its sense of long-suffering endurance and also reconciliation.”
Publisher's Weekly
“It's as if the author, 29 at the time of writing, has closed his eyes to recall the essence of events that are burned into his memory from age 7 to young adulthood. He chooses both chilling and loving details that convey his emotion without cluttered analysis...”
The New Mexican, Santa Fe
“Mr. Omar's new book, A Fort Of Nine Towers, is a poetic, funny and terrifying memoir of life in Kabul between the Soviet Army's exit and the Taliban's retreat.”
The Economist
“Qais Akbar Omar, a young carpet merchant in Kabul, has written an autobiography that is among the best to emerge from Afghanistan ... One of this memoir's virtues is that it captures the chaos and depredations of the era.”
The Globe and Mail. Toronto
“Omar is a weaver not only of tales but also of fine rugs, and like all good tales it mixes enchantment with terror.”
Lancette Arts Journal
“This is an insider’s intimate view of a battered but beautiful country and of families that have the same cares and values as our own.”
Guelph Mercury, Ontario, Canada
“This book is important. It is vital. It is so simple, so honest, and so very, very real.”
LitStack
“Omar's beautifully written book is an affecting account of survival in the midst of brutality and fear, and a testament to the importance of family and friendships in a place where neighbours turned on neighbours.”
The Sunday Times, London
“Qais Akbar Omar's memoir sets out . . . to show us the ordinary Afghanistan as well as the horror . . . Yet for all the horrors he has seen and the loved ones he has lost, there is no desire for vengeance in this account, only a profound stoicism.”
The Times, London
“The story of Qais's family and their remarkable survival . . . As he shares this long journey, through terror, loss, heartbreak, and sudden moments of joy, Qais's spirit still shines.”
Queensland Times, Australia
“Afghan author Qais Akbar Omar’s story tugs at the heartstrings yet it is not maudlin or sentimental, only nostalgic and deeply evocative of his way of life . . . His moving story will broaden your focus and understanding of an oft-maligned country.”
The Chronicle, Toowoomba, Australia
“A story of a supportive family surviving against unbelievable odds.”
Illawarra Mercury, Australia
“What ultimately shines through in this book is the powerful and positive spirit of Qais and his family.”
The New Indian Express, Delhi
“A carpet weaver with an extraordinary tale. But then only a few must have had a childhood like Qais Akbar Omar’s.”
The Week, New Delhi
“A Fort of Nine Towers is a profoundly touching memoir of a boy growing up during the last three tumultuous decades in an Afghanistan that bears testimony to extreme brutality and unmeasured compassion.”
The Asian Age, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, London
“The story of Qais Akbar Omar is no ordinary tale.”
Sakal Times, Pune, India
“If you have an ungrateful teenager on your hands, get them a copy of A Fort of Nine Towers. I guarantee that their view of life will change for the better after reading this book.”
Afghan Blog
Radio Interviews:
The World, PRI/BBC
“Qais Akbar Omar. He’s written a memoir about his tumultuous youth in Afghanistan. It’s called A Fort of Nine Towers. It begins in Kabul, where Omar spent some idyllic childhood years growing up with 25 cousins within his grandfather’s lush, walled estate.”
http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/afgha...
The Diane Rehm Show, NPR
"A Fort of Nine Towers, a memoir of growing up in Afghanistan. The journey one family takes as they attempt to flee decades of violence and find hope in their homeland." http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/201...
The Current, with Anna Maria Tremonti, CBC Radio Canada
"He was eight years old when the warlords took over his neighbourhood setting in motion a terrifying series of events that saw Qais Akbar Omar and his family wander through Afghanistan in search of a safe haven. Qais Akbar Omar on his childhood memories." http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/The+Cu...
The Forum, BBC World Service
"Qais says that in Afghanistan, everyone is a storyteller, and you shape your stories to fit your situation."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p019bxtf
Leonard Lopate, WNYC Radio
“Qais Akbar Omar talks about growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, in his memoir,
A Fort of Nine Towers, which reveals the richness and suffering of life in that country.... As the Mujahedin war devolved into Taliban rule, Omar learned about quiet resistance, and opened a secret carpet factory to provide work for neighborhood girls."
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2013...
Christopher Lydon, Radio Open Source
"Qais Akbar Omar might persuade you that ‘poetry is the essence of Afghanistan,’ and that story telling is still the soul of the place. He is giving us a young Afghan writer’s impressions of boyhood in heaven and a civil war in hell.”
http://www.radioopensource.org/qais-a...
Endorsements:
“The first true-life memoir of growing up in Kabul, this is both a magical and a chilling book which conveys the strength of family in truly terrible times. Definitely on my recommend list for 2013.”
Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent, The Sunday Times, London, and author of The Sewing Circles of Herat.
“At a time when Afghanistan threatens to recede into a bloody and debased footnote, Qais Akbar Omar reminds us of the honor and courage of his people. A remarkable feat of memory and imagination.”
Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, author of The Watch and The Storyteller of Marrakesh
“In this stark, unflinching memoir, Qais Akbar Omar illuminates the beauty and tragedy of a country pushed to the brink by war. A Fort of Nine Towers gives voice to the unbreakable spirit of the Afghan people.”
G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen
“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
“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
“The product of an immensely talented writer, A Fort of Nine Towers puts a human face on the violent history of Afghanistan”
Rachel Newcomb, author of Women of Fes and The Gift
“This is a book for those who love Afghanistan, for those who want to understand it, or simply for those who value deeply the best in the human spirit. It is a tale that deserves to rank with The Kite Runner.”
Ronald E. Neumann, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and
president of the American Academy of Diplomacy
An autographed copy of A Fort of Nine Towers, brought a $5,000 donation Tuesday night at a fund-raiser for the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. Within minutes, five more copies of the book generated $1,000 each. http://rugknot.com/fundraiser-educati...
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