The Storyteller’s Daughter by Saira Shah [in AsianWeek]
As the British-born daughter of a writer of Sufi fables, Shah heard endless mystical tales of the family’s ancestral homeland of Afghanistan. At 21, Shah goes in search of those roots, eventually becoming a freelance journalist with rare access to both warlords and everyday people in a ravaged land. Caught between her Western upbringing and her family myths, Shah cannot stay away in spite of the dangers to her life, she eventually makes the acclaimed documentary Beneath the Veil, which captures the horrifying devastation of the female population of Afghanistan under Taliban rule. A wandering memoir that could have used one more edit, Daughter is nevertheless a rare, much-needed glimpse into a still-closed society.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, November 7, 2003
Readers: Adult
Published: 2003
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