Do you want to know what is going on in Afghanistan? So does everyone. Even folks who live in Afghanistan want to know what the hell is going on. Fariba Nawa was born in Afghanistan and moved to the US when the Soviets tried to take over the country in 1979. She is now a journalist who has traveled back to new country and the remains of her memory of that country. "Opium Nation" is the rare non fiction book that is both a general history of a region and a specific history of a woman returning to land that she does not recognize and one who's men do not recognize her as nothing more than property that has not been claimed, and therefore unholy.
The general history follows the military and political but entwined with both, and life in Afghanistan, is the cultivation, production and distribution of opium. The consequences of this are to be imagined but one consequence sets it apart and that is the child bride that is given over to pay off debts due to the military and political influences on the cultivation, production and distribution of opium.
The personal history is the real hook. Fariba has such a unique take on her homeland, having spent half of her life in the US. She doesn't condemn the way that her Afghan sisters live their lives, they have no choice, for a woman to wear pants in Kabul is ask for real trouble. Yet to wear a head scarf in the US is to elicit suspicion.
Anyone interested in a cursory history of Afghanistan or an engaging biography of going home would be well served to read "Opium Nation" by Fariba Nawa. Khaled Hosseini named it one of his must read books on Afghanistan. And who am I to argue?
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