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Shop nowWest of Kabul, East of New York
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Learn moreThe day after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Tamim Ansary sent an anguished e-mail to twenty friends discussing the attack from his perspective as an Afghan American. The message reached millions.
Born to an Afghan father and American mother, Ansary grew up in the intimate world of Afghan family life. When he emigrated to San Francisco, he believed he’d left Afghan culture behind forever. But at the height of the Iranian Revolution, he took a harrowing journey through the Islamic world to rediscover his roots. In the years that followed, he struggled to unite his divided self and to find a place in his imagination where his Afghan and American identities might meet.
Here in his own words is one man’s personal journey through two cultures in conflict.
Tamim Ansary is the award-winning author of Destiny Disrupted and West of Kabul, East of New York. He has been a major contributing writer to several secondary-school history textbooks offering an Islamic perspective.
Tamim Ansary is the award-winning author of Destiny Disrupted and West of Kabul, East of New York. He has been a major contributing writer to several secondary-school history textbooks offering an Islamic perspective.
Reviews
“[An] emotional and moving memoir, driven by passion and intelligence…It breaks the heart.”
“A book that steadies our skittering compass...It speaks with a modesty of tone and is all the more resonant for that reason[It] sees things we cannot make out and need to.”
“His descriptions of his Afghan childhood are luxe and delicious—crammed with beautiful textiles and wondrous smells, bazaars, casbahs, compounds with courtyards, servants, strawberry patches, ragged mountains.”
“[A] powerful, timely book, written with clarity and eloquence…We come to see the humanity behind the country that has come into the international spotlight.”
“Any carping about this being an instant book should be quelled when readers actually encounter Ansary’s considered prose…His descriptions of having lived in and identified alternately with the West and the Islamic world are utterly compelling.”
“Ansary’s low-key reading adds a humanizing tone.”
“[Ansary] tells truths about dislocation, heritage, home, family, and religion that both affirm life and profoundly sadden…Worth any reader’s time.”
“Gracefully written and very powerful, Ansary’s meditative memoir reaches deeper and illuminates more brightly than any news report or political analysis.”
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