99 Nights in Logar
By Jamil Jan Kochai
Blurb
Me and Gul and Zia and Dawoud out on the roads of Logar, together, for the first time, hoping to get Budabash back home before nightfall
It is 2005 in Logar, Afghanistan, and twelve-year-old Marwand has returned from America with his family for the summer. He loses the tip of his finger to the village dog, Budabash, who then escapes. Marwand’s quest to find Budabash, over 99 nights, begins.
The resulting search is an exuberantly told adventure, one that takes Marwand and his cousins across Logar, through mazes, into floods and unexpected confrontations with American soldiers. Moving between celebrations and tragedies, Marwand must confront family secrets and his own identity as he returns to a home he’s missed for six years. Deeply humorous and surprisingly tender, 99 Nights in Logar is a vibrant exploration of the power of stories – the ones we tell each other, and the ones we find ourselves in.
Our Review
99 Nights in Logar is a rich and intricately detailed novel and paints a vivid picture.
99 Nights in Logar is set in Logar, Afghanistan. Marwand is there for the summer after living in America with his family for years.
On his arrival he is bitten by a guard dog from the village named Budabash who escapes shortly after.
“Budabash got free sometime in the night. We didn’t know how. Just that he did and that we needed to go and find him.”
Over the next 99 nights Marwand and his family search for the dog. The resulting tales intertwine mythology, history and family legends are reminiscent of Arabian Nights.
99 Nights in Logar was an interesting read but I did find the host of characters confusing at times and wasn’t always able to remember who they were in relation to Marwand.
I have heard some people say that the non-English words within the text and the chapter in Arabic script towards the end are off-putting, but I found it added to the novel and provided a sense of context. 99 Nights in Logar is set in a foreign place and it would be inauthentic not to include things like this.
The style in which 99 Nights in Logar is written lends itself well to enabling the reader to understand how Marwand and his brothers find themselves torn between two essentially opposing cultures.
This book reminded me in some ways of A Confusion of Languages and Flesh and Bone and Water because of the sense of being thrown into a foreign culture.
99 Nights in Logar was a unique read.
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 46 Times.
I hope you enjoyed this book review, please consider sharing it with others.
Get In Touch
Please feel free to leave a comment to this book review below. Or even leave your own review if you like.
If you run a blog and/or have posted a review to this book, a Q & A or general author interview online you can always add a trackback to it here and following moderation we'll add a link to it below.