Chapter Five The wooden canteen – big enough to accommodate the salesman and a few jars of spicy simyan or a home-made snack, chickpeas, biscuits and lollipop – often took up half of our break owing to its location in the far corner of the schoolyard, and its lengthy queues. Today was no exception,…

Chapter Four A short man in a washed-out suit was gesturing. He leaned against a Russian jeep parked on the pedestrian way in front of the Russian-subsidised cooperative. My heart fell as the short man showed his red-coloured card: a KHAD agent. ‘Asnad?’ The KHAD agent checked our ‘documents’, tazkiras or birth certificates, and…

Chapter Three My routine went like this every academic year: perform the noon prayers after coming home from school, have lunch, take a siesta, drink tea with what Mour called ‘brain food’ – almonds, pistachios, walnuts and raisins – study until the five-minute cartoon film at 18:15 on television, chill with my friends until…

“ Chapter Two Curiosity took Baktash and me to an empty school a week ago. The mujahideen daily fired rockets at Kabul from the capital city’s outskirts, indiscriminately killing and injuring Kabulis. Fortunately, last week’s stinger missile hurt no one, but it created an enormous hole in the schoolyard’s garden and smashed almost all…

ReviewThe Lone Leopard is…ideal for fans of Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi and Christina Lamb —CEPSAF a powerful book that tells a story I will never forget…an emotional roller coaster…an eye-opener…that has the potential to become a classic over time. —The Rest Journal of Politics and Development a heart-wrenching, yet hopeful story of family, friendship and love set against the…conflicts of Afghanistan…an extremely good read —Bedfordshire Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support a generous, sensitive, well-researched novel which offers an informative…