Last week I saw Tamim Ansary speak. He read from his new book, The Widow’s Husband. He was born in Afghanistan. The book is historical fiction set in 1839 to 1842. He begins the book with this historical note:
“In 1839, Great Britain sent an army into Afghanistan to replace the country’s ruler with a more compliant king. The “Army of the Indus” completed its assignment easily. Soon wives and retainers followed husbands and lovers and a vigorous British community began to thrive in Kabul. Three years later, that entire community tried to flee the country over the Hindu Kush mountains; but out of 17,000 men, women and children who left the city on a stormy January day, only one man made it out of the country alive.”