Author:Jean Sasson
From the time she was a little girl, Maryam rebelled against the terrible second-class existence that was her destiny as an Afghan woman.
She had witnessed the miserable fate of her grandmother and three aunts, and wished she had been born a boy. As a feisty teenager in Kabul, she was outraged when the Russians invaded her country. After she made a public show of defiance, she had to flee the country for her life.
A new life of freedom seemed within her grasp,but her father arranged a traditional marriage to a fellow Afghan, who turned out to be a violent man. Beaten, raped and abused, Maryam found joy in the birth of a baby son. But then her brutal husband stole him away far beyond his mother's reach. For many long years she searched for her lost son, while civil war and Taliban oppression raged back home in Afghanistan.
Set against a landscape littered with tragic tales of horrific suffering, Jean Sasson, author of Princess, chronicles the story of one resolute but tormented woman determined to achieve freedom and equality with men.
Brilliant! In this book, we are privileged to share the richness of Frankl's experience and the depth of his wisdom.
—— Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. MDA truly important book
—— Rabbi Harold Kushner...to be treasured by psychologists and theologians and by men and women who wrestle with ultimate questions and encounter God as often in the question as in the answer.
—— Michael BerenbaumAt the start of the twenty-first century, this book feels especially relevant
—— from the Foreword by Claudia Hammond, award-winning broadcaster, writer and lecturer in psychology'Remarkable'
—— ChoiceIn this gloriously learned page-turner, both biography and intellectual history, Harvard Shakespearean scholar Greenblatt turns his attention to the front end of the Renaissance as the origin of Western culture's foundation: the free questioning of truth (starred review)
—— Publishers WeeklyAslan offers an invaluable introduction to the forces that have shaped Islam [in this] eloquent, erudite paean to Islam in all of its complicated glory
—— Los Angeles Times Book ReviewWise and passionate . . . an incisive, scholarly primer in Muslim history and an engaging personal exploration
—— The New York Times Book ReviewAcutely perceptive . . . For many troubled Muslims, this book will feel like a revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried
—— The IndependentThoroughly engaging and excellently written . . . While [Aslan] might claim to be a mere scholar of the Islamic Reformation, he is also one of its most articulate advocates
—— The OregonianA revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried, denied and corrupted by generations of men ... Muslim keepers of the latter will rage against Reza Aslan as his careful scholarship and precise language dismantles their false claims and commands ... Aslan is acutely perceptive
—— The IndependentA rather beautiful account of the birth and evolution of Islam ... Lucid and illuminating ... Fascinating
—— MetroAslan is an engaging writer, his strength lies ... as an observer of contemporary challenges facing Islam ... Sensitive and generous
—— FT MagazineEnthralling. A book of tremendous clarity and generosity of spirit
—— Jim Crace