If you enjoyed reading...
One Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
(See Book Review)
Also by Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
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This international sampler of true stories might interest you, depicting the endurance, inner strength, and ingenuity of individuals and families in the face of oppression, political unrest, deprivation, danger, displacement and loss.
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad. A Norwegian journalist’s account of living with an Afghan family, which contrasts traditional social and tribal customs and mores with post-Taliban opportunities for change.
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Born in Somalia, her family escaped the political situation there by living in Ethiopia, Kenya and Saudi Arabia. After a difficult childhood, and a marriage of love, Hirsi Ali escaped from an arranged marriage, seeking asylum in the Netherlands. There she became a feminist, politician and member of parliament, but left under adverse circumstances to live in the U.S..
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. The reactions of a university professor returning to her native Iran to life under an oppressive regime, and stories about the students she encounters, to whom she introduces Western classics and an alien culture.
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir. The daughter of an aide to the king of Morocco and her family were imprisoned after her father was executed for an attempted coup. How they survived a life of isolation and deprivation and lived to tell the story is a compelling read.
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway. Former president of Smith College, Conway began her life on a hardscrabble ranch in Australia. In addition to the harsh elements which affected her family’s livelihood , at a young age she had to cope with her father’s death, mother’s depression, and her intellectual awakening, which led her to leave her native land.
The Color of Water by James McBride. An African -American writer and jazz musician describes growing up in a Brooklyn housing project, one of twelve children of a black father and white mother, and his confusion with his own identity.
Desert Places: a woman’s odyssey with wanderers of the Indian desert by Robyn Davidson. Davidson vividly recounts her time among the Rabari nomads traversing the Indian desert by camel, experiencing generosity, deprivation and danger...
In the Heart of the Sea: the tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick.
A riveting read about the whaling industry out of 19th century Nantucket, the shipwreck of the Essex by an enraged sperm whale, and the three months spent by the crew in small boats, in search of land or assistance. The events served as the true-life model for Melville’s Moby Dick.
Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian Hakakian, a filmmaker and poet now residing in the U.S., recalls her childhood in Tehran, growing up in a prominent Jewish family. The change in political regimes negatively affects the rights of women and girls, intellectual freedom and the idealism of the young. The religious fervor ignites anti-Semitic acts against the small Jewish community, her brothers must flee the country, and she loses some of her greatest treasures.
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