276°
Posted 20 hours ago

My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Afghanistan has millions of Pashto and Dari speakers with little or no local support for creative writing, literary translation, or literary editing. Lyse spent fifteen years as a BBC foreign correspondent with postings in the Middle East, West Asia and West Africa. One of these women wrote her story in the middle of a damn war that was going on, I know this is headline news at the moment with what’s going on in Europe and the Middle East but I’ve never truly realized just how comfy and safe my life is compared to so many people in this world. My Pillow’s Journey of Eleven Thousand, Eight Hundred, and Seventy-six Kilometers - Farangis Elyassi – Never thought a story about a pillow would be so poignant.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. The stories that most stood out to me were "The Late Shift" by Sharifa Pasun that talks about how brave a female journalist as she deals with conflicting vocations of motherhood and truth. Through tiny observations we, as readers, can identify with the plight of so many women in Afghanistan, whose daily lives are like our own, yet so significantly different in many – and oftentimes – terrible ways. At the end of this collection, in the Afterword by Lucy Hannah, it is explicit that these stories for now cannot be published in Afghanistan, it is too dangerous.On reflection I have rated this as a 5 out of 5 as the bravery and the content has really impacted me and stayed with me as well as given me much to think about. In the story “I Don’t Have The Flying Wings” by Batool Haidari (translated from the Pashto by Parwana Fayyaz), a young boy, struggles with his gender identity and is punished when he is discovered trying to be himself when alone at home.

But a couple of the stories do offer hopeful endings, which is the best we can expect given the circumstances. It represents the power of fiction and the role of the artist to stand up to authority in the hope of making life better. Many thanks to the authors, translators, publisher, all those who brought this book to fruition, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.My Pen is the Wing of a Bird is an anthology of short fiction written by Aghan women and painstakingly translated into English, not only for the benefit of English-speaking audiences, but out of necessity; the current political climate in Afghanistan prevents these women from being published, and therefore from finding a readership, in their own country.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment