The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

Author/Guide: Deborah Rodriguez

Why a Booktrail?

Early 2000s: Deborah Rodriguez left America for Afghanistan in 2002 – she sets up a beauty school and co-owned a coffee house there. Her novels come from her remarkable true life tales

ISBN: 978-0751550405
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

In a little coffee shop in one of the most dangerous places on earth, five very different women come together.

Sunny is the proud owner of the coffee shop of the title whose passion for her job shines through although she is always thinking of how she can keep her customers safe for this is not a safe country for women like her. Yazmina is one such customer who comes to the shop looking for a warm drink and a santuary of sorts for she is young and pregnant and alone on Kabul’s violent streets. Oh and look there’s Halajan – now she may be sixty but she has led an interesting and somewhat colourful life.

Then we have American Candace – who has come to Kabul for her Afghan lover Wakil leaving her husband in the process. And finally Isabel, a journalist. Does she have a story to tell herself or is she searching for someone else’s?

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Travel Guide

If you’ve not read a book set in Afghanistan before then this is a gentle yet realistic introduction to a country which is somewhat of an enigma – for on one hand the streets of Kabul are violent and the politics of the country obviously unstable. Yet the heartwarming story of five women who meet up in a coffee shop shows another and as yet undisclosed side to the city. Written by a woman whose real life experience either closely mirror or are largely the inspiration for the stories within this book, the whole experience is one that you can learn from as well as enjoy.

Kabul was such a world of men, a place where women’s concerns and voices were secondary at best, so why not give women a place and a reason to hang out and talk and just be together?

But its the charm of the country that shines through despite the obvious difficulties of living and working in this country. The charm of the coffee shop conversation with the range of characters who come to drink and meet there reveals much about the country –

“Afghanistan needs to rid itself of the people who only want to rape its women, enslave its children and destroy its land and resources”

Stories which tell of female health conditions in Shattak, the problems of Mazar (how Tommy refers to Mazar-e Sharif) plus other locations to give a real sense of the country, its culture and its people.

And the people of Afghanistan as represented in this book are those you would like to meet – Halajan with her refusal to give up smoking even though it was banned under the Taliban and her direct way of talking is a character who would provide a fascinating story of her own. Her views on what women can and can’t do and woe betide any Terrorist who tries to tell her otherwise!

There is much beauty to be found in the most unexpected of places….

Booktrailer Review

Susan:

Fascinating book which is made all the more so as the author has such a passion and experience for the country and its people! All the charm and love of all things Afghan shine through amidst the obvious issues of security and women’s rights but this is a country of contrasts that I really enjoyed reading and learning about.

The author herself writes about the security issues she faced in having a coffee shop in the first place and the day to day issues of being a woman in ‘Manistan’ and the whole idea of marrying into a different culture and going to live in Kabul was a fascinating read in so many ways. What we see on the news is not the Kabul that really exists as peel back the layers in this book and the women are just the same as you and me – human – with worries and concerns on a daily level – but who need humour and laughter in their lives to live as humans should.

I totally loved this book for it showed how ignorant I was about a country. Now having tried the gorgeous recipes at the back and read the book, I still feel I’ve still only dipped my toe in what there is to discover.