The Norwegian writer on meeting the Taliban, her fears for girls’ education, and the legal battle that ensued after the publication of her bestselling book
From Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop, to The Door-to-Door Bookstore, a variety of new novels present bookselling as a source of solace, meaning and escape. What’s going on here?
Shah Muhammad Rais, 69, founded his bookshop in Kabul in 1974 and rose to prominence when Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad wrote about his life in her 2002 bestseller.