The Bookseller of Kabul

For more than twenty years, Sultan Khan defied the authorities to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was then arrested, interrogated and improsooned, and watched illiterate soldiers burn piles of his books in the street.

Award-winning Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad spent four months living with him and his family in 2002. This is their story, the most intimate look yet at ordinary life for those who have weathered Afghanistan''s extraordinary upheavals.

One husband, two wives, five children, and many other relatives sharing four small rooms opened up their lives, unforgettably. Through this close-knit household, we gain an intimate view - as few outsiders have seen it - of life in an Islamic country just beginning to find its way between the forces of modernity and tradition.