Qais Akbar Omar's Books

A Fort of Nine Towers

An Afghan Family Story

By: Qais Akbar Omar

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A Fort of Nine Towers

An Afghan Family Story

By: Qais Akbar Omar

A young Afghan man's memoir of his family and country in which the horrors and perils he faced, his imprisonment, and his quiet resistance explore life in a country whose history has become deeply entwined with the United States, but has eluded understanding.

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Page Count

413

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250043654

ISBN 13

9781250043658

A Fort of Nine Towers

By: Qais Akbar Omar

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A Fort of Nine Towers

By: Qais Akbar Omar

Qais Akbar Omar is 29 years old. His young life coincided with one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan history: civil war, the rise of the Taliban, and the arrival of international troops in 2001. A Fort of Nine Towers - named for the place his parents first sought shelter from war - is the story of Qais' family and their remarkable survival. A group of tenacious and deeply loving people, when the fighting came they were buffeted from one part of Afghanistan to the next 'like kittens in the jaws of a lion', setting up camp on the plains, in the famous Buddha caves at Banyam, and with Kuchi nomads, before returning finally to Kabul, where they belong.

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Page Count

396

Publisher

Picador

Published Date

ISBN 10

1447221753

ISBN 13

9781447221753

Shakespeare in Kabul

By: Stephen Landrigan,Qais Akbar Omar

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Shakespeare in Kabul

By: Stephen Landrigan,Qais Akbar Omar

In 2005, a group of actors in Kabul performed Shakespeare's Love’s Labour's Lost to the cheers of Afghan audiences and the raves of foreign journalists. For the first time in years, men and women had appeared onstage together. The future held no limits, the actors believed. In this fast-moving, fondly told and frequently very funny account, Qais Akbar Omar and Stephen Landrigan capture the triumphs and foibles of the actors as they extend their Afghan passion for poetry to Shakespeare's.Both authors were part of the production. Qais, a journalist, served as Assistant Director and interpreter for Paris actress, Corinne Jaber, who had come to Afghanistan on holiday and returned to direct the play. Stephen, himself a playwright, assembled a team of Afghan translators to fashion a script in Dari as poetic as Shakespeare's. This chronicle of optimism plays out against the heartbreak of knowing that things in Afghanistan have not turned out the way the actors expected.

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Page Count

268

Publisher

Haus Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1907822488

ISBN 13

9781907822483

A Fort of Nine Towers

An Afghan Family Story

By: Qais Akbar Omar

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A Fort of Nine Towers

An Afghan Family Story

By: Qais Akbar Omar

One of the rare memoirs of Afghanistan to have been written by an Afghan, A Fort of Nine Towers reveals the richness and suffering of life in a country whose history has become deeply entwined with our own. For the young Qais Akbar Omar, Kabul was a city of gardens where he flew kites from his grandfather's roof with his cousin Wakeel while their parents, uncles, and aunts drank tea around a cloth spread in the grass. It was a time of telling stories, reciting poetry, selling carpets, and arranging marriages. Then civil war exploded. Their neighborhood found itself on the front line of a conflict that grew more savage by the day. With rockets falling around them, Omar's family fled, leaving behind everything they owned to take shelter in an old fort--only a few miles distant and yet a world away from the gunfire. As the violence escalated, Omar's father decided he must take his children out of the country to safety. On their perilous journey, they camped in caves behind the colossal Buddha statues in Bamyan, and took refuge with nomad cousins, herding their camels and sheep. While his father desperately sought smugglers to take them over the border, Omar grew up on the road, and met a deaf-mute carpet weaver who would show him his life's purpose. Later, as the Mujahedin war devolved into Taliban madness, Omar learned about quiet resistance. He survived a brutal and arbitrary imprisonment, and, at eighteen, opened a secret carpet factory to provide work for neighborhood girls, who were forbidden to go to school or even to leave their homes. As they tied knots at their looms, Omar's parents taught them literature and science. In this stunning coming-of-age memoir, Omar recounts terrifyingly narrow escapes and absurdist adventures, as well as moments of intense joy and beauty. Inflected with folktales, steeped in poetry, A Fort of Nine Towers is a life-affirming triumph. A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2013 A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013

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Page Count

415

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

0374709181

ISBN 13

9780374709181

A Night in the Emperor's Garden

A True Story of Hope and Resilience in Afghanistan

By: Qais Akbar Omar,Stephen Landrigan

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A Night in the Emperor's Garden

A True Story of Hope and Resilience in Afghanistan

By: Qais Akbar Omar,Stephen Landrigan

In 2005, everything seemed possible in Afghanistan. The Taliban was gone. A new government had been elected. A cultural renaissance was energizing the country. An actress visiting from Paris casually proposed to some Afghan actors in Kabul: Why not put on a play? The challenges were huge. It had been thirty years since men and women had appeared on stage together in Afghanistan. Was the country ready for it? Few Afghan actors had ever done theater. Did they even know how? They had performed only in films and television dramas. Still, a company of actors gathered—among them a housewife, a policewoman, and a street kid turned film star. With no certainty of its outcome, they set out on a journey that would have life-changing consequences for all of them, and along the way lead to A Night in the Emperor’s Garden.

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Page Count

262

Publisher

Haus Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1910376205

ISBN 13

9781910376201

Shakespeare in Kabul

By: Stephen Landrigan,Qais Akbar Omar

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Shakespeare in Kabul

By: Stephen Landrigan,Qais Akbar Omar

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

268

Publisher

Haus Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1907822488

ISBN 13

9781907822483

Book's by Qais Akbar Omar

A Fort of Nine Towers

A Fort of Nine Towers

A Fort of Nine Towers

A Fort of Nine Towers

Shakespeare in Kabul

Shakespeare in Kabul

A Fort of Nine Towers

A Fort of Nine Towers

A Night in the Emperor's Garden

A Night in the Emperor's Garden

Shakespeare in Kabul

Shakespeare in Kabul

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