Born Under a Million Shadows

I could not put this down. Sweet book, fluidly written, I enjoyed this story so much I am buying another copy so I can give it as a holiday gift to a good friend.

It has been a long time since I have previously been this emotionally involved in a novel. The ability of an author to engage the reader in the lives and personalities of the novel's characters is seldom found with the level of skill found here. Consider this: writing a novel in the first person means that the author has to inhabit the protagonist's mind and body to tell the tale. Sometimes a man will endeavor to write as a woman, and sometimes the other way round. Often the writer misses the mark. Consider now the challenge of being an adult woman writing in the personna of an 11 year old boy. Now there is not only a gender gap, but an age gap to negotiate. That was not enough of a challenge for Andrea Busfield, however. She elected to add the complication of cross-cultural personality. And she nails it. This wonderful novel shows the reader daily life in Afghanistan. She carries you inside the expectations of a Muslim upbringing (being herself a British Christian). She paints with a clear brush the means of survival of the orphan children, the widows, the elderly men, and the warlords. I savored every word of this wonderful masterpiece, and after the end of the story itself, I read the etcetera section, the Glossery, the Acknowledgements -- and then I sat for nearly half an hour cradling the book in my hands like a precious child. I literally "didn't want to put it down".

Although this is a novel set in Afghanistan and narrated by a young boy, this is not The Kite Runner in tone or content. Nor does it even try to be. It is a completely different novel. Fawad, age "ten or eleven", is living in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. As the novel takes place, the country is beginning to slip back into the morass of lawlessness, so there are suicide bombings, corruption as well as death from natural causes such as a cholera outbreak. But this book is much more about life and hope. The natural optimism of a young boy shines through and is extended to the country as a whole. Fawad is the only surviving child of his family. His father and siblings died typical Afghanistani deaths - war, Taliban and disease. He and his mother start off in the oppressive home of a maternal aunt. Fawad's mother then gets a job as live-in maid for three westerners - a heavy drinking male journalist, a lesbian engineer and Georgie, a tall idealistic Englishwoman who has fallen in love with the country and is Fawad's first crush. The author is English and fell in love with the country and stayed but who are we to imagine an autobiographical resembalnce to the near perfect Georgie? The boy is a terrific observer. Through his eyes we see Afghanistan in all its contradictions. We also see the inherent conflict between devout (not fundamentalist) Muslims and well-meaning non-Muslim westerners. We see the on-going struggles of children to survive and the power of warlords. We see love that can result in marriage, love that can not and marriages arranged without regard to love. All the characters are well-developed. By the end of the book, the reader feels the pleasure of getting to know each of them so he is invested in their lives and futures which is a feat of good writing. This is a great story with portions humorous, sad, serious and light, as is all of life. Perhaps it is all magnified by the daily threat of catastrophe in Afghanistan, but the story transcends one country. This very readable novel is highly recommended.

Like other reviewers, I was surprised that a British journalist could write a novel from the perspective of an Afghan boy that seems authentic, but indeed Andrea Busfield has succeeded in doing so. Her years living and working in Afghanistan and befriending the locals contributed substantially to the believability of Born Under a Million Shadows, a debut novel which compares favorably to Haled Hosseini's Kite Runner, and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Eleven year old Fawad is an engaging and likeable narrator, perhaps too insightful for his age, but highly observant and emotionally invested in the wellbeing of his mother, his young friends, and the three Westerners for whom his mother works. Although we wince at the painful realities of life in post 9/11 Afghanistan, we are also moved by the warmth and generosity of many of the characters. Fawad's interest in their love lives may seem surprising, but his curiosity and caring leads us to share his fascination. We wonder with him: Will his mother marry Shir Ahmad? Is there any future for Georgie and her passionate but unreliable Muslim lover, the Afghan warlord Haji Khan? Like many novels which explore a child's life in another culture, Born Under a Million Shadows is not tightly plotted. It is a character-driven novel, seeped in the day-to-day details of life in Kabul, and a boy's attempt to understand the machinations of the adults around him. While working in a grocery to supplement his mother's meager income, he spies upon his new foreign friends, wanting to learn all about them, and afraid that they will suffer in hell for failing to live in accordance with Islamic codes of conduct. His friendship with Georgie, in particular, is particularly moving. The reader is likely to find Fawad endearing, and to smile at his many escapades and his occasionally naive perceptions. Busfield excels in providing local color - details of Afghan cultural life which enable us to feel that we are there in the house with Fawad, on the streets of Kabul, or visiting Jalalabad where Haji Khan lives, surrounded by bodyguards. We participate in Georgie's attempts to raise goats for cashmere, and learn about the opium trade, the Afghan love for poetry, their clothing, and their hospitality. We discover how girls are sold into marriage, how women's freedom of action is restricted, and how the violent oppression of the Taliban has impacted the people, especially Fawad's family. Yet at no time do the cultural details intrude upon the story. Busfield skillfully maintains Fawad's perspective, providing background information about his family's past without lapsing into lengthy exposition. Born Under a Million Shadows is brimming with both anguish and joy, terror and delight. It lures you into its story so easily that you may have difficulty putting it down once you open the book and read the first lines: "My name is Fawad, and my mother tells me I was born under the shadow of the Taliban...."

I finished this book in one sitting and was simply unable to tear myself away from the story of young Fawad and his friends. I had not expected much when I picked up this book. I had thought it to be another dismal story of pain and suffering of the children in war torn Afghanistan. The story may be set in Afghanistan and it does not paint a pretty picture of the impact of war on Afghan society but it is an uplifting and, in the end, hopeful story of childhood and friendships that cross cultural and physical borders. Fawad is a child of utter brilliance and clarity of perception where his friends are concerned. He lives in a violent and unfair world but accepts the situation with an innocent and optimistic outlook. When his mother moves into the home of a three foreigners, as their cook, he is initially wary and then befriended by an unexpected group of outsiders. With the wisdom and naivety of childhood he tries to understand the ways of these foreigners and tries to steer his mother's life towards security. His favorite, Georgie, is in love with an Afghan warlord and a self proclaimed unbeliever. Fawad's torment about what will happen to Georgie in the afterlife if she does not change her ways is depicted in a very non-judgemental way. In fact, the author manages to handle the entire very sensitive topic of the 'rebuilding of Afghanistan' with restraint. Once in a while a political or philosophical thought does not ring quite true as belonging to a young boy and it does seem to be a more direct message from the author rather than from the character. While, at times lighthearted and other times outrageously hilarious, Fawad is always aware of the heavy burden on his young shoulders. This is not a child harboring any illusions about the cruelty of life and the way women are treated in Afghanistan. Yet he is passionately fond of his mother and the young British woman Georgie. Unabashedly convinced of his duty as a man in an Afghan/Muslim family he tries to steer both women in a direction he thinks will bring them a safe and respectable future. He accepts the unfairness of being a female in Afghanistan but that does not mean that he doesn't try to tweak the system a little. Finding a job for his young friend Jamilla before she is old enough to be 'sold for drugs' is a practical concern for him. This would be a marvellous book for older teenagers although it does have a fair bit of swearing. When I read the book the narrative voice of Fawad reminded me of another brilliant young character from Mark Haddon's book 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime". We truly enter the mind and inner logic that guides Fawad and his actions. By the end of the book there have been bombings, suicide attacks, assasination attempts and a cholera outbreak in Kabul but I found myself hopeful for the future of Afghanistan and its children. This book is very definitely a keeper!!