The Places In-Between, by Rory Stewart In 2002, Rory Stewart made a walk across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul. A scholar of Afghan history and language, he aimed in those grave first years after 9/11, to learn “what [Afghanistan] was like now.” Part memoir, part political and cultural history, Stewart […]
The Places In-Between, by Rory Stewart In 2002, Rory Stewart made a walk across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul. A scholar of Afghan history and language, he was wellgrounded the country’s ancient history, and in the grave first years after 9/11, sought to learn “what [Afghanistan] was like now.” Part […]
The Places In-Between, Rory Stewart In 2002, Rory Stewart made a walk across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul. A scholar of Afghan history and language, he was well grounded the country’s ancient history, and in the grave first years after 9/11, sought to learn “what [Afghanistan] was like now.” Part […]
Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House Cheryl Mendelson With the start of the new year, your thoughts might—and I emphasize might—turn to spring cleaning. It may seem a little early, but January is the traditional month for airing out and dusting off the old in order to […]
And the Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini Riverhead Books First Edition: May 21, 2013 ISBN 978-1-59463-176-4 When I read Qais Akbar Omar’s harrowing yet touching memoir of growing up in war-torn Afghanistan, A Fort of Nine Towers, as well as his account of bringing the Bard to that Middle-Eastern country in […]
A Fort of Nine Towers Qais Akbar Omar Farrar, Straus and Giroux First Edition: April 16, 2013 ISBN 978-0374157647 When my daughter was seven years old, she was in 2nd grade in the Minneapolis public school system. She was a good student, struggled in math some, occasionally had to deal […]
Last November, I reviewed an amazing book about an amazing occurrence in an amazing place. The name of the book is Shakespeare in Kabul, co-authored by Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar. Ever since I read the book, it has simmered in my mind and heart. With LitStack featuring William […]
Shakespeare in Kabul Qais Akbar Omar and Stephen Landrigan Haus Publishing Ltd May 15, 2012 ISBN 978-1-908323-08-8 —♦— In March 2005, a chance meeting in Kabul between a French actress and an American playwright allowed for something amazing to happen: a first ever theater production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.