Through lyrical imagery – striking and shocking – she takes us inside the small world of a child “too young and energetic to understand fear”. But invisible bullets and very visible Russian tanks hint at the big bad world beyond in the decade after the Soviet invasion that sparked the 40-years-and-counting war... But Afghanistan’s contorted past takes a back seat to the gripping story of a girl growing up. A bit more history wouldn’t have gone amiss, though. For example, we seem to move seamlessly from Taliban to post-Taliban rule after the 9/11 attacks that brought them down. But perhaps this cements one of her central points. It doesn’t matter who is in power - women’s lives don’t change much...
