One Story, Thirty Stories

Book excerpt: "From a society shredded by violence and a generation caught between Afghanistan and America, Saed and Muradi have sewn together a vibrant patchwork of memory and imagination. At turns raw and affecting, One Story, Thirty Stories is a chronicle of loss and reunion, offering a firsthand look at how communities are fractured and remade, with all the frustration and tenderness that exile evokes."---Tara Bahrampour, To See and See Again: A Life in Iran and America "One Story, Thirty Stories is exquisite documentary, a kaleidoscope of fragmented lives, losses, and attempts at remaking. The editors have assembled a collection that manages to be both literature and history, heartbreaking and hopeful, educational and lyrical. From the daughter of a cab driver to the daughter of an imam, from a crack dealer to a standup comic to an ambassador, the writers in this book offer not only poignant testimony but also form a who's who of Afghans in the United States. An invaluable, accessible resource for anyone who cares about what America is doing in, and to, Afghanistan."---Minal Hajratwala, author of Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents Since 9/11 there has been a cultural and political blossoming in the Afghan diaspora, especially in the United States, revealing a vibrant, active, and intellectual Afghan American community. And the success of Khaled Hosseni's The Kite Runner, the first work of fiction written by an Afghan American to become a bestseller, has created interest in the works of other Afghan American writers. One Story, Thirty Stories (or Afsanab, Seesaneh, the Afghan equivalent of "one upon a time") collects poetry, fiction, essays, and selections from two blogs from thirty-three men and women---poets, fiction writers, journalists, filmmakers and video artists, photographers, community leaders and organizers, and diplomats. The fifty pieces in this rich anthology show people trying to come to grips with a life in exile, or they trace the migration maps of parents. They navigate the jagged landscape of the Soviet invasion, the civil war of the 1990s and the rise of the Taliban, and the ongoing American occupation.