99 Nights in Logar

by Jamil Jan Kochai

A coming-of-age story about one boy’s journey across contemporary Afghanistan to find and bring home the family dog, blending the grit and immediacy of voice-driven fiction like We Need New Names with the mythmaking of One Thousand and One Nights.

Twelve-year-old Marwand’s memories from his previous visit to Afghanistan six years ago center on his contentious relationship with Budabash, the terrifying but beloved dog who guards his extended family’s compound in Logar. Eager to find an ally in this place that’s meant to be “home,” Marwand approaches Budabash the way he would any dog on his American suburban block—and the results are disastrous: Marwand loses a finger and Budabash escapes.

The resulting search for the family dog is an expertly told adventure, a ninety-nine-night quest that sends Marwand and his cousins across the landscape of Logar. Moving between celebrations and tragedies, deeply humorous and surprisingly tender, 99 Nights in Logar is a vibrant exploration of the power of stories—the ones we tell each other, and the ones we find ourselves in.

Genres: Fiction, Coming Of Age, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Adult, Middle East

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2019

About the author

Jamil Jan Kochai is the author of 99 Nights in Logar (Viking, 2019), a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. He was born in an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, but he originally hails from Logar, Afghanistan. His short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Ploughshares, and The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018. Currently, he is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jamil Jan Kochai writes a beautifully multilayered and complex novel structured with stories within the main narrative that comprises of a coming of age tale and the challenges of identity and belonging that will resonate for all of us who have moved and made their homes in another country. 12 year old Marwad moved to the US six years ago but is returning home to Logar in Afghanistan for the summer. Marwad is guilt ridden over his past cruel treatment of the guard dog, Budabash, a product of the differing perception of dogs in the US, but his remorse leads to Budabesh biting off a bit of his finger and then proceeding to run away. Young Marwad and his cohorts embark on a dangerous and adventurous journey amidst the labyrinth of streets of Logar constructed to act as defence, to find Budabesh.

With rich descriptions Kochai paints a picture of the forbidding geography of Afghanistan, its history and culture, with its strong tradition of storytelling, with its myths and legends and the nature of family, secrets and the nature of the extended family. The story of Marwad and his journey outlines the dangers of its political situation with the US occupation as they encounter US soldiers. No picture of contemporary Afghanistan would be complete without its historical perspective of being constantly occupied, religion and the Taliban. The novel does a brilliant job in portraying the tragedy of a nation's history and its present through the narrative and eyes of a young boy on his return to an Afghanistan that was once home.

I really enjoyed reading this but my experience was marred by the poor formatting issues and the lack of required translations at key points of the story. These issues will no doubt all be rectified on publication but perhaps publishers might consider the disservice done to the novel and the novelist when they issue ARCs in this condition to reviewers. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightenment
99 Nights in Logar is a well-crafted novel where the main plot thread is entwined with multiple tales, incidents, interesting characters, enthralling history and a harsh location. There is a common sense of atmosphere from many books based in Afghanistan and it’s probably due to the wonderful writings that depict a culture always guarded against occupying forces and the imposing landscape of the country. The native occupants of the country have their own myths and culture that feed great storytelling.

Marwad is a 12-year-old boy who has just returned from the US after 6 years and has broadened his experiences yet there are life lessons still to be learnt. He is reintegrated into the wider family circle of aunts, uncles and cousins, and their life within the extended family's compound. Marwad feels guilty of how he abused the guard dog Budabash and his last engagement with the dog left him losing the top of his finger and the dog escaped.

Marwad and his friends Gul, Dawood and Zia set off to find Budabash in an adventure that crosses paths with American soldiers and Taliban, and is regaled with interesting tales, often with a dark sense of humour. I find it exciting to read about regions I may never visit and get a glimpse into a new culture and lifestyle. I enjoyed many of the tales told here, however, after a while I became less interested and just wanted day 99 to arrive.

In a very strange and confusing way, the publishers tried desperately on a number of counts to damage the readers’ experience. Firstly there are the formatting issues which resulted in me giving up a few times and it took quite a while to finish this book. Secondly, the untranslated story of Watak is just dead text for me, and the use of unfamiliar terms were effectively blanks. I feel I should be rating this story much higher but I’m just worn down with the physical effort of reading this disjointed text.

I would like to thank Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in return for an honest review. For future reference, it is counterproductive providing book texts in this state.

[✨faith✨trust✨pixiedust✨ Dead Account; Not Coming Back · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this ARC from Viking via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change.

November 8th update: I finally figured out how to translate the mystery Pashto chapter thanks to Google Lens, but it didn't really answer my question. I'm gonna get someone to doublecheck it for me to make sure the translation was legit or not, but I'm slightly disappointed. But hey, at least I know what it kinda says! Better than nothing! update over

June 4th update: I've decided to up my rating from 2 to 3 stars, the reason being that I've just been thinking about this book a lot, and (while I still don't know what that one chapter said), this book really stuck with me, especially after I read the Hobbit, and realized what that weird dream about food was all about. update over

This book was a bit of a trip. I feel like I spent 99 nights just trying to read it.

"During the whole length of the battle, I was scared of hiding and becoming caught. Of running and being hit. Of shooting and becoming a killer. And all my fears warred inside of me, until they massacred one another, so that it wasn't courage that let me fight, but the death of my fear."

Obligatory Summary

Marwand is a 12 year old traveling from America to Afghanistan, his homeland, right in the middle of relative peace during the Afghan-American war in the early 2000s following 9/11. There he meets his extended family—his aunts and uncles and cousins, his grandmother and grandfather—hearing their tales of love, war, and innocence lost. He also meets the family dog, Budabash, who bites off the tip of his finger and, several days later, runs away.

Marwand and his buddies go on the hunt, against their older relatives orders, and find themselves trapped in a strange battle with incurable land-induced seasickness, unending hunger, and abandoned mazes that end in darkness.

The Writing (and Worldbuilding?) and Characters

It kind of pains me to rate this so low. It really wasn't that bad, to be completely honest with you, and I've rated worse books higher, but its particular sins made this reading experience unnecessarily difficult, and so that greatly influence my ultimate review.

"It's okay to change a story a little if you make it better. And heroes and love, they always make things better. Otherwise, you know, what's the point?"

This book seemed to take this quote to heart. The narrator was so unreliable, the divide between magical realism and straight up fantasy so blurry, I had such a hard time making sense of anything.



A strength of the book was the immersion and the characters. While I got confused a lot about the terminology, being a white girl from the USA, and that terminology was explained once, if at all, I did get the hang of things and actually appreciated the conversational feel the immersion gave the novel. I loved all the characters and felt that they added some realism to the story (for the most part). I really liked Marwand's family and their dynamic, especially his buddies, Zia, Gulbuddin, and Dawood. They all brought something unique to the story. Jawed the Thief was iconic. He gave it such a storybook, fairytale quality and seemed to be the only person who knew what was going on. I sure didn't.

"Even ghosts need company," Jawed said.

The plot was paced oddly but in a way that felt like natural tangents and asides, like Marwand was with me regaling me with his strange tale. It reminded me a lot of The Life of Pi in that way.

Another book it reminded me of was The God of Small Things, which isn't a compliment. That book was so confusing and strange, which such a weird and actually quite disgusting ending, that I had no idea what any of it meant. And so was the case with this book, but significantly less disgusting (though the blatant animal abuse didn't help). I was trying to piece together the meaning but was at such a loss. I'm entirely unsure what any of it was supposed to mean, and if some events even happened or not.

"Ever since that night on the road beneath the mulberry tree, all day and night all I can think about is how God will punish me. Or. How He won't. That scares me too. That scares me more. But Marwand, the cows weren't scared. They were dying, and they knew they were dying, but they were at peace. There was no hate in them. No doubt. They just breathed until they couldn't. The waters rose until it stopped. I was the only one floating."

Now here comes the biggest sin, and I'm not sure if it'll be this way in the fully released version, but I'm rating what I was given.

That 3 page reveal of a secret that had been hinted at for the entire book, that I was so extremely anticipating. It wasn't in English. No translation was given. The next chapter doesn't reference it or explain anything. It's all in Pashto and I CANNOT READ PASHTO. I have a friend who reads Urdu, but she obviously cannot help me. If anyone here reads Pashto (my friend is pretty sure it's Pashto), please help me. I wanna know what freaking happened to the uncle. (I'd translate it all myself that would take a million years.)

Conclusion

This is being referred to as a middle grade novel and I have to wonder if the people calling it that have ever read middle grade novels before. Or ever been 12. Just because the protagonist is 12 all throughout, and just because the back of the book says it's a "coming-of-age" doesn't mean this is middle grade by any means. This is literary fiction in all its messy glory.

Honestly this was a 4 star book bogged down by 1 star issues until what was good was only annoying in its decency when what was bad took center stage. I think Jamil Jan Kochai is very promising and I'm intrigued by what else he has to offer (as long as it's all in a language I can actually read).

"It's a terrible, terrible thing, my little bird. It's like waking up one morning without a limb or an organ. Without your lungs. Your liver. Your skin."

Read this review and more on my blog here!

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twelve year old Marwand and his family have traveled from their new home in America to to visit their extended families in the Logar Province of Afghanistan. It is six years since they were last there and Marwand and his younger brothers revel in reconnecting with their cousins and being free to run around. When Marwand tries to make friends with the family guard dog, Budabash, he has his finger bitten off and the dog escapes. Against family orders, Marwand and his band of friends leave the compound to go in search of the dog through the dangerous country where they encounter thieves, Taliban fighters and US soldiers.

Kochai has not only given us a rich glimpse of what it is like to live in Afghanistan, a country wearied by war and constant fighting but through the stories told and passed on through the generations shown us the rich traditions and history of the people who live there. As the bombing in the mountains continues, life goes on in the villages as marriages are negotiated and celebrated in age-old traditions. The boys are delightful in their innocence but on the verge of becoming old enough to be embroiled in the never ending politics and fighting.

The book would benefit from a glossary as there were many Afghani words I had to go and look up. The ARC also suffered from poor formatting (with line numbers sprinkled through the text) that made it difficult to read but this should not be an issue once published. 3.5★

With thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for a digital ARC to read.

[🇵🇸🇵🇸 hasfia 🇵🇸🇵🇸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this one deserves a reread, there’s too much to understand and too much to consider and too much it’s all too much 😭😭

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Built partly around the story of a road trip Marwand and his three companions make in search of the escaped Budabesh, 99 Nights in Logar is an insight into Afghan culture, the recent turbulent history of that country and an exploration of storytelling. Told in the narrative style and colloquial speech of a teenage boy, Marwand's experiences are interspersed with lists, travellers stories, cautionary tales and religious parables.

In the book, stories function as a source of entertainment, an expression of a shared culture and history, and as a repository of received wisdom. Inventiveness and creativity in the act of storytelling is valued and celebrated. At one point, it's even what tips the balance in considering an offer of marriage.

Although I enjoyed learning about Afghan culture and liked the colourful characterization of Marwand's companions, there were a number of things that made this a difficult and slightly disappointing read for me. Firstly, the frequent use of dialect words with no glossary to refer to. Secondly, the size of Marwand's extended families of uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. and the various ways they were referred to (not always by name but by relationship to someone else) meant I found it difficult to keep track of who everyone was. There was also a section just before the final chapter in Arabic script with no translation provided. I'm unsure if this was deliberate.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 2 out of 5]

12-year old Marwand's family has journeyed back home to Logar, Afghanistan, from the States for the long hot summer of 2005. In the beginning of the book his English is strong and he describes struggling with his mother tongues Pakhto and Farsi; by summer's end he is passing as a native speaker. Being mixed-race myself I love a good back-to-roots cultural odyssey; I savored the exotic descriptions, the heart-warming aspect of homecomings and reuniting and bonding, and I gained some perspective on the region's religion and also its military history with Pakistan, Russia and America, not to mention the Taliban, Massoud and Hekmatyar.

However I found the many nicknames and honorifics of so much extended family to be quite confusing. I appreciate how this book is structured as a maze of embedded stories, in an Arabian Night-esque way, but I couldn't get past Marwand's many acts of animal cruelty: against Budabash the wolf-dog in 1999 and then again in 2005, his slitting cutting and stabbing a mule in order to get it to carry him around, even drawing blood in his attempt to milk the family cow.

The version I read was on Kindle, to be published in 2019 by Bloomsbury. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Nadine in California · Rating 5 out of 5]

This starts charmingly as a kind of Afghan Tom Sawyer story of four boy cousins in the rural village of Logar who go on adventures (still stopping to pray 5 times a day), watch Rambo III over and over on VCR, and generally mess around. The charm never fades, but this is Afghanistan in 2005, and danger is so wild and varied it segues easily into the mythical. Hiding in some bushes at night, the boys are....

"...listening for every footstep of every killer in Logar: the psychopathic white boys, the ravenous bandits, the Ts and the gunmen and the drug runners, the kidney kidnappers, the robots in the sky, the wolves from the mountains and the coyotes from the rivers, the witches in the cesspits,the djinn in the trees, the ghosts from the graveyards, and the monsters in the maze."

Kolchai (through American cousin Marwand) portrays his colorful family with love and humor. Here is his grandmother's reaction to the news that her daughter and son have each fallen in love:

"Abo burst into a barrage of curses so nasty, so complex, so intricate and personal and cruel, so creative and dirty, that I could not help but take offense as she marched off towards the washroom, shoved Ruhollah into a rosebush, made wudhu, prayed, and spent the rest of the night by herself in Baba's chamber, which Baba himself was then not allowed to enter."

Kolchai makes two great writing choices that make Afghan culture feel warm and immediate. First, he frequently uses Pakhto words without any effort at interpretation for english-speaking readers. Second and best of all, he tells many parts of this story in tales (The Tale of the Butcher's Daughter', The Tale of the Girl in the Blue Dress'), which convey lots of necessary information in an entertaining way without a hint of info dumping. It's also a lovely nod to One Thousand and One Nights and Afghan story telling traditions.

[Come Musica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una storia nella storia, e poi in un'altra ancora e ancora e ancora.
Un multistrato di storie che hanno come scenario l'Afghanistan.
Il protagonista è Marwand, un dodicenne che ritorna in Afghanistan, per le vacanze estive (con la famiglia si è trasferito sei anni prima negli Stati Uniti). E qui ha inizio l'avventura di Marwand.
La sensazione di spaesamento che si prova nel leggere il romanzo è molto forte: da una parte sembra di essere ai tempi de Le mille e una notte (e gli echi che provengono da questo libro sono molto forti) e dall'altra si ha la certezza di essere nel XXI secolo.

Dalle descrizioni ricche di Kochai, se da un lato emerge la bellezza incontaminata di queste terre così ricche di tradizioni, di storia, di cultura e di rituali e riti, dall'altro stride l'orrore di una guerra in corso, che va avanti da anni.
Marwand parte alla ricerca del suo cane-lupo Budabash per ritrovare le sue radici, le sue origini e per scoprire quel senso di appartenenza a una terra che sente estranea, per via del trasferimento negli Stati Uniti.

"Sul palmo della tua mano destra, se lo guardi, Dio ti ha impresso nella carne il numero arabo 18.
E sul palmo della mano sinistra, so lo guardi, Allah ti ha tracciato nella pelle il numero arabo 81.
Ora, se si fa la somma fra questi due numeri, si ottiene 99.
Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) ha 99 nomi.
E se da 81 sottrai 18, ottieni 63.
E il Profeta (pace e benedizioni siano con lui) morì a sessantatre anni."

Il penultimo capitolo è interamente in arabo. Chissà cosa ci sarà scritto...

Kochai si serve del racconto del ritrovamento del cane-lupo scomparso, per usarlo come metafora nel descrivere la tragedia della storia di un Paese devastato dalla guerra: e lo fa servendosi degli occhi di un dodicenne che prova a ritrovare le sue radici.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Afghanistan in 2005, 99 Nights in Logar follows twelve-year-old Marwand, who is visiting his family's home region after spending six years in the United States. It is structured around a journey taken by Marwand and his cousins across the Afghan countryside in search of the family’s guard dog. During their search, they meet numerous people who share stories. The narrative alternates between the present-day pursuit of the missing dog and embedded short stories that provide historical and cultural information about Afghanistan. While it does not ignore the wartime events (airstrikes, checkpoints, occupation), it extends beyond a typical war narrative. This book is more about the journey and the stories along the way than reaching any specific destination. The author was born near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border he is writing about his extended family’s home province. I also recommend Kochai’s The Haunting of Hajji Hotak.

3.5

[Sharaf Zia · Rating 5 out of 5]

99Nights is that rare book that can deservedly be called a 'love-letter' to its people. It is written with remarkable care, intimacy, and with a humor and wit that blazes on every page. The characters are a joy to witness, as are descriptions of everyday life in Logar. I won't belabor the major plotpoints of the novel since you can find them in most reviews anywhere. Instead, I'll talk about what makes this book ring and hum with life.

First, the prose. The writing here is crisp, lyrical, and moves seamlessly between a plucky, humorous register and a deeply affecting tenderness. On the surface, there is a sturdy plot and motivation: Young Marwand, who is visiting his family in Afghanistan, loses his finger to the family dog, then the dog itself before setting out to retrieve said dog with the aid of his cousins and family. That's essentially it, plotwise: A dog runs away and there is a young boy's quest to find him. And yet somehow, within this major arc, not only do we see a grand tapestry of relationships, an array of fascinating and memorable characters fostering friendships, forging alliances, arranging marriages, but we also get to see this area's history through a dazzling array of legends and family lore. I loved that instead of footnotes and backstory, the writing here chooses to contextualize and complicate characters through the stories they tell and the stories that are told about them. Which makes perfect sense. Marwand's family members are a stoic lot who have lost countless loved ones to endless wars and will lose more still. For a family like this, there is really no space for sentimentality or nostalgia, and so, instead of preserving their loved simply as fond memories, they choose to preserve them as stories instead.

This is an act of profound intimacy we see repeated throughout the book--people refracted through stories--and we see it in its purest form in the chapter on Watak, written entirely in Pashto.

A lot of readers have had trouble with this chapter, which they feel is integral to their understanding of the book. It really isn't, although I can certainly understand why many people feel that way. The chapter occurs nearly at the end of the novel, and since we are conditioned to see any information that pops up at this time as crucial to our understanding of the 200-250 pages that have come before, we assume that we have been gypped of essential information. Except, we haven't. There is nothing crucial to the plot in this chapter. All information here has already been relayed in the preceding pages. Instead, the story of Watak recounted in Pashto is intended as a gift for the people this book is about: Afghans and Pakhtuns. Writing this chapter in Pashto (or using Pashto and Farsi words otherwise), therefore, is not a frivolous decision or an unfortunate experiment. This isn't a look-ma-no-hands-po-mo author looking for people to genuflect at the altar of his intelligence. Instead, Jamil is attempting something far more intimate and radical. He is keeping one small nugget out of this vast treasure trove of stories for his people and himself. And he is doing this knowing full well that there are perhaps maybe a hundred or fewer people out there who will read this chapter and share in its experience. It is an incredibly mature and astoundingly courageous decision for a young debut writer to put his people and his love for them before concerns of commercial success and wider readability. Most writers I know would have elected to keep this chapter in English, so as to not lose, or worse offend, a primarily English-speaking audience, something that would have neutered this novel, and robbed it of its palpable grace and intimacy.

99Nights, thus, is a love-letter to the Pakhtun people in its purest form. Some of its intimacies remain closely guarded, yes, accessible only to the narrator's countrymen, but isn't that what love-letters really are? Intimate conversations that we are sometimes privileged to access? Conversations that we cannot fully participate in, but that allow us in enough to make us feel included in the sacred games of the heart? Conversations that remind us what it means to love a homeland and a home? And isn't the joy of witnessing such a love enough?

I'll let you all read the book and decide.


P.S. The book does not condone animal cruelty, folks. Marwand is a child and like most children has a capacity for being flippantly evil. The novel does not celebrate this aspect of his personality. In fact, the whole idea of finding the dog and making sure the family does not put him down is predicated on the fact that Marwand understands exactly why the dog has bitten off his finger, and that he understands the need to make amends for his behavior. Which is why I am at a complete loss as to why so many readers are having trouble with this part of the story. Are we saying that 13 year olds can't be evil? That they shouldn't be allowed the space for growth or redemption? That it is alright for a book to show Afghani kids being blown apart and slaughtered under a War on Terror, but God-Forbid anyone is mean to the dog? Is this what we are saying here?

[Devyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads.

I had to force myself to finish 99 Nights in Logar.



To make a very long and very angry rant short(ish):

Twelve-year-old Marwand is a insecure, angry little boy with the cruel tendency to take out his underlying issues on Budabash, his extended family’s guard dog living inside the compound in Logar, Afghanistan. At the beginning of the book it is assumed that all the animosity between beast and boy begins when Budabash bites off the tip of Marwand's finger, but the whole book is a testament to the fact that Budabash should have ripped the little shit's throat out from the very beginning instead of just nipped the tip of a single digit.

The abuse starts way before the finger incident, back during Marwand's family's first visit when he would pummel the dog with his chubby toddler fists and get enraged when Budabash didn't react to the beating.


Fast forward the present, Marwand and his cousins spend a good portion of his second visit harassing and abusing Budabash by pelting him with unripe fruit and dirt clods, feeding him human excrement and glass and gasoline, and watching him around the clock and inspecting his poop to see if the poisons injured his insides.
There is more instances of this kid's wickedness towards animals; when he milks the cow, he makes the udders bleed; when he gathers eggs, he breaks every single one.

After the tip of the finger gets deservedly swallowed, Marwand and cousins spend 99 days hunting Budabash.

You'd think that after all the abuse and confusion and general unpleasantness the ending would have some profound meaning or Marwand would make up for all the abuse to Budabash or there'd be a freaking reason for writing a book all about torturing a dog...but nah.

[Kelly K · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ page 33
Already within the first 33 pages there's frequent animal abuse. No fucking thank you. I should have read the reviews before I started this one.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

12 year old Marwand is visiting his homeland in Afghanistan along with his family in the summer holidays from school in the US. The mind of a 12 year old does not concern itself with the war that is going on, more with finding and making peace with a dog that bit him on a previous visit. He and four friends go out to search for the dog that has disappeared. On the surface it may seem like a Stand By Me type of story, but there is a lot else going on; this is life during wartime, so as well as a family wedding and a bad flood, the US forces conflict with the Taliban in the surrounding countryside. As if that wasn’t enough, Kochai intersperses the narrative with short contemporary fables. All in all, it’s a very different and thoroughly enjoyable read, Kochai’s great skill is the contrasting innocence of his 12 year old narrator.

[Yassir Morsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed what I found to be a richly imaginative exploration of what it means to "return" home. But, perhaps above all else, I really like Jamil's reviving of layered and intertwining storytelling.

The story follows a 12-year-old Marwand return to his village. He has the tip of his index finger bitten off by Budabash, a guard dog. Marwand with his cousin and younger brother vow “jihad against Budabash”, hunting him down. The 99-day-long search for Budabash is filled with real and imagined tales, through nightly storytelling in the family compound; I really enjoyed how Jamil didn't push the consequences of War on his reader. There was no moralising, instead, the stories always seemed to circle back to the war, circle back to the idea of sensemaking and pursuing life with war always there. It provided a far more profound sense of what violence does.

I look forward to reading a very talented author's next work.

[USOM · Rating 3 out of 5]

TW: Animal abuse

99 Nights in Logar is a middle grade that packs a lot into one story. Not only is a story that revolves around the power and influence of stories, but it's about Marwand's quest for his family dog and the connections he makes with his extended family. What starts out as a book about Marwand and the search for the missing family dog, morphs into a book that tells the family stories. 99 Nights in Logar is timely, without being overt, talking about how Marwand's friends in America pick on him about the Taliban, mix up his ethnicity, and give up pronouncing his name. There are so many stories, that 99 Nights in Logar demands attention.

[Janet Rhodes · Rating 2 out of 5]

The bones of this story are really good. It’s a fascinating story of an Afghan-American family gone back to visit relatives in Logar province over a summer, told through the eyes of 12 yr old Marwand, mostly raised in the US. But the story needs major editing to pull it together. Arabic script was left untranslated, as were many Pakhtoe (?) words but their meaning was not clear from context. If the intended audience is Arabic speakers, no problem—but a wider general audience needs more help. 99 Nights in Logar has great potential but needs more work IMHO.

[فاروق · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this novel. This book tells the story of Marwand, a 12 year old Afghan American boy, and his adventures in Afghanistan over the course of a summer. Anyone who still has a lot of extended family in a different country and has spent summers/holidays visiting them will probably find a lot to resonate with in the funny experiences and moods captured in this book. Everything from venturing off with one’s cousins who live in the place you’re visiting and getting into both petty and high-stakes trouble, to learning more about one’s own parents and their personalities by observing how they interact with their siblings and homeland cultures was depicted brilliantly. Beyond being funny and familiar, the story itself is wonderful and capitvating, and features tons of smaller stories narrated by the characters themselves. The troubles, conundrums, and schemes Marwand finds himself in bring out explorations of faith, kinship, war, and love. And given that the characters span generations, each characters reflections or understandings of faith, kinship, war, and love are deeply colored by their experiences, hopes, and pains (as understood by the stories they tell), and so the book, while whimsical, had me pausing at a lot of moments to take in the complexity and depth of what was going on.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like giving low marks, but I really struggled with this book. The synopsis of the book was very interesting: 12 year old Marwand and his young cousins set off on a journey to find the family dog after it bites off Marwand's finger and escapes. They travel through a remote area of Afghanistan without any adults knowledge. So far so good. I liked the premise of the story.
Where I struggled was the style of writing. Pakhto and Farsi were used in the story, and I found it impossible to understand. Perhaps the end published book will have a glossary to refer to? Even the context where the language was used didn't help me. The family relationships and forms of address were complicated and I really couldn't keep track of who was who (could this be added into a glossary?). Finally, for me, the animal cruelty was pretty difficult to stomach.
Other readers may be able to see past this last point, and a glossary may well be added in the finished, published book, but I'm afraid this is just not for me personally.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and review.

[Sarah Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and human. A love letter to the Afghani people that's interested in joy and sadness and family and magic. It takes inspiration from 1001 Nights to pull us deeper and deeper into this tale of family and community and a quest for reconciliation, while being incredibly smart politically. If your only exposure to Afghanistan was growing up with American news and reading The Kite Runner and The Breadwinner, you *need* to read this book.

Very slight / vague: spoiler:
Readers who've complained here about the lack of translation and transliteration should consider what that means politically; when I saw the six pages of Pakhto script near the end, I thought it was a brilliant touch. And I don't speak or read Pakhto. And that's the point, in part, the question of expectation about who in the world gets catered to or not, who has their secrets spilled or not, and with whom the weight of communication and learning language to communicate lies.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the use of magical realism, particularly as the narrator is a child. I also liked the use of Pashto words, even though it makes it much harder for me, as we English speakers can't have it all handed to us on a silver platter. That said, if anyone has a translation for the Pashto passage I would love to read it. :)

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

it took me awhile to get into this book and had mixed feelings about it. liked the idea of mixture of afghan folklore and a coming of age novel during the American invasion and clashes with the Taliban but did find the book slow going though and wouldn't be everyone novel.

[Booknblues · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the surface 99 Nights in Logar is a story about Marwand, a 12 year old boy who returns with his family in the summer of 2004 or 2005 to Afghanistan to connect with his extended family. But under the surface is a maze of stories which work to connect and tie his family and culture together.

“Nice try. Really nice. But Gwora, the ending was no good. Next time you tell it,” Gulbuddin advised, “change it up a little. Put in a hero or, even better, a bunch of heroes. And a love story. Because, Gwora, it’s okay to change a story a little if you can make it better. And heroes and love, they always make things better. Otherwise, you know, what’s the point?”

“Back then,” he’d say, “Watak and my cousins spent all night telling stories in the dark. We didn’t need TV or movies.” When I argued that movies had stories too, he didn’t even get mad. “But not our stories,” he said. “You understand?”

This book could be called magical realism, but I think that it is its very own thing. It uses stories to explain a culture, within a maze and it makes sure that nobody can see the whole of it.

I truly cannot recommend it for everyone, but I did enjoy reading it.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed parts of this book, like the adventuring that all the cousins got into and also getting a glimpse into a culture that I know practically nothing about. Otherwise though this book felt a bit disjointed. I appreciate the message of the power of stories and the way that in order to convey that all sorts of stories were woven through the book, but at times it became difficult to tell who was an extended member of the family, who was a memory, and who was a fable. Parts of this were downright beautiful, and other parts were a bit slow or halting, but I feel like I learned a lot.

[Mariam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow start, amazing and lyrical in the middle, but a hasty and disappointing ending. Some parts of the story was well developed, written poetically, and with a lot of details that helped the reader immerse in them, other parts not so much. Overall, a fantastic first attempt.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was nothing about this book that I liked. Foreign phrases in almost every sentence. Stupid story line. Nobody liked the dog which was why I wanted to read it in the first place.

[Krutika · Rating 3 out of 5]

99 nights in Logar.
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@bloomsburyindia was super kind to send this lovely book.
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99 nights in Logar is a book that beautifully describes Afghanistan and Islamic faith. The book begins with a streak of adventure when Marwand along with his cousins head out to find the missing wolf dog, Budabash. Marwand loses his finger when he extends his hand towards the dog and even the injured stub of his finger is narrated in great detail. Though I enjoyed the book, it was quite confusing to remember all the names and nicknames since they had mostly to do with native language.
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The narration is wonderful and almost poetic as little Marwand talks about his culture and the people in his joint family. The author even takes time out to talk about Talibans and Americans back when they had bases in the country. Couple of things did upset me, one of them being how the mistreatment of animals has been openly written. The book proceeds slowly and might often make readers to abandon it in the middle. One other thing that bothered me was the ending where an entire chapter has been written in Arabic (I'm guessing it to be) or the local language with no translation provided. I didn't know what to make of it but couldn't help but wonder about the author's intention behind this work.
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This book will definitely fascinate people in ways as it often does when one talks about tradition and family values. It has a subtle resemblance to the writing style of Arabian nights and it's very clear that the author has a splendid way of describing things and people that makes you miss your homeland.
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Rating - 3/5.

[Nadine ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich denke um diesen Roman genießen zu können sollte man auf jeden Fall eine gewisse Affinität zur arabischen Kultur haben. Denn, und das finde ich sehr wichtig, dieser Roman erzählt von einem abenteuerlichen Sommer eines zwölfjährigen Afghanen - das Buch nimmt sich nicht heraus Bräuche der Menschen dort kritisch zu beleuchten(Was ich damit meine: es geht nicht um die Burka, es geht nicht um Vermählungen Minderjähriger, es geht nicht um die Rolle der Frau - dazu muss man sich eine andere Lektüre suchen).

Das hier hat eher etwas von einem Märchen aus 1001 Nacht! Marwad erzählt von seinem Sommer, in erwachsenen Worten, aber aus kindlicher Sicht. Im Nachhinein weiß man nicht genau wo die Wahrheit aufhört und die Kinder-Fantasie beginnt. Es gibt 'Helden' und 'Dämonen' und viel Liebe.

Die Erzählung beginnt mit zwei Zeitsträngen, die ersten Tage in Logar und ein kleiner Zeitsprung zu dem Moment als Budabasch, der Hund der Marwards Fingerspitze abbeißt am ersten Tag, das Weite sucht. Diese Stränge laufen dann zusammen, so dass der Autor dann ab da weiter erzählt.

Besonders genossen habe ich die vielen kleinen Geschichten die über das ganze Buch verteilt sind und die 'Jagd' nach Budabasch, und alles was daraus resultiert, untermalen.

***

Dieses Buch ist eine Einladung zum Chai, eine Einladung zu einer Afghanischen Hochzeit und auch eine Einladung es sich gemütlich zu machen und alten und neuen Geschichten zu lauschen.
Zum Ende hin wurde mir die Geschichte ein kleines bisschen zu verworren, aber ich habe das Buch dennoch sehr genossen.

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Wer sich für die arabische Kultur begeistern kann, der sollte auf jeden Fall einen Blick auf dieses Buch werfen.

[Lungstrum Smalls · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book for being a glimpse into a world I don't know. I appreciated the magic and the animals and the stories in stories in stories. But it all felt a bit too surgical to me, like all of the pieces of a FIRST NOVEL from a PROMISING WRITER strung together. I think there's a story hidden within this story, wanting to get out. But it's just a bit smothered.

I ended up reading this book because I read, and loved, Kochai's short story, Hungry Ricky Daddy, in the journal Ploughshares. That story had an edge to it that I just didn't find here.

I do look forward to reading more from Kochai!

[Chitra Ahanthem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part satire, part absurdist fiction and parts magical realism, this is a crazy caper set across the socio political landscape of parts of Afghanistan, a country wrecked by political ideologies at loggerheads, its social fabric in tatters and its people under constant militarisation.

On the face of it, we have the story of 12 year old Marwad who has returned home to Logar, a small village in Afghanistan from the US and the reader gradually knows that the setting precedes 9/11 when Taliban Forces were still the good boys in the books of America whose soldiers have a strong presence in the country.The story (amongst various stories) follows Marwand’s search for Budabash,his uncle’s dog who has run off with his index finger though we are never sure whether the search is to exact revenge on the dog or to get back the finger. 

The narrative is about community ties and how important story telling is to the socio cultural fabric of societies. Instead of an adventure of a physical trek to find the dog, Marwand and his team takes part in weddings, community events and social meetings where almost everyone has a knack for story telling. Is the storytelling a means of escape for the people, a way of trying to make some sense from the familiar world of the stories they live with instead of their unease over the growing violence and militarisation they must cope with?Each story being told sound ludicrous and then one realizes that we live in a world that is more crazy than the crazy tales we think we are being told. This is not an easy book to read but if you are up to finding new ground in literary voices, you won’t be disappointed.