Award-winning Norwegian journalist, Asne Seierstad, chose to live for four months with Sultan Khan and his extended family to experience at first hand life in Kabul, after 9/11 and the fall of the Taliban. This informative insight into life in Afghanistan, reads like a novel and is very accessible. The author portrays clearly the role of women in this changing society, highly governed by male dominance. The bookseller is educated and liberal, yet his youngest daughter Leila can neither become a teacher, nor marry whom she wishes. We experience a wedding feast, a pilgrimage, shopping trips in the bazaar, and the hammam. The author paints a very convincing portrait of society in Afghanistan, through anecdotes and description. Suitable areas of study may include the reliability of this book as a historical document, Seierstad’s skillful use of language in recreating a sense of setting and culture, or an exploration of the role of women in Afghanistan.