Sunday, March 14, 2010

Book Review: The Patience Stone

Title The Patience Stone
Author Atiq Rahimi
Rating ****1/2
Tags fiction, women, afghanistan, war 
 

Short book, long scream.
That's a flippant but relatively accurate picture of this book. The flippancy comes as a reaction to shield one's self from the brutal amount of pain in the book.

It is the story of a nameless woman in Afghanistan. She is taking care of her husband who has been in a coma for weeks after being shot. Meanwhile the fighting continues around her. She must also take care of her two young daughters, but is able to find an aunt to take care of them, and once they are gone, she begins praying less and speaking to her husband more... frankly, starkly telling him her heart about what he, and constant warfare, have done to her.

Not easy reading, but a book that should be widely read.

 

 
Translator – Mclean, Polly
Introduction – Hosseini, Khaled

Publication Other Press (2010), Hardcover, 160 pages
Publication date 2010
ISBN 1590513444 / 9781590513446

Posted via web from reannon's posterous

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