The Widow's Husband by Tamim Ansary

The Widow's Husband Reviews

• 
  Julie

  I really enjoyed Tamim Ansary's history books. He has a great way of explaining how events that happen at one point of time and place impact the rest of the world and giving a global perspective on some key moments in our past that we've unfortunately only seen through Western eyes. He uses a similar technique in this story. Set during the British invasion of Afghanistan during the mid-1800's, this lyrical tale is told through the eyes of the invading British army and the residents of a small mountain village. The village is having a bad year. They are facing a water shortage and the British are corrupting the villagers, but things take a turn for the better when a holy malang decides to settle in the village.
  
  This story was such a pleasure to read -- great historical fiction, a bit of magical realism, and a glimpse of another age.
• 
  Mazharul Islam

  ভালো লাগলো।
• 
  Rania Razzmatazz

  I like Tamim Ansary's narration style. His technique keeps the reader engaged from page one till the end. Moreover, the story about Afghanistan's plight looks endless. Personally, I like to get a view in a place (and people, of course) so different from my experience and so devastated by many reasons. Highly recommended to open our eyes to a country that is known mostly for negative reasons.
• 
  Sharon

  While I learned something of the mid-nineteenth century Afghani culture as well as the historical circumstances of the British "rule" in Afghanistan, I found the story to be somewhat tedious at times.
• 
  Meredith Allard

  
  “Let me take you across the miles and down through the years to a tiny village in Afghanistan, some hundred miles north of Kabul, in the year 1841…”
  
  So begins the mesmerizing novel The Widow’s Husband by Tamin Ansary. For myself, before the U.S. began its war on terror I had never given much thought to Afghanistan, thinking it was nothing more than the question to a Jeopardy answer: This Middle Eastern country is central in the land of –stans, bordering Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Iran. Like many Americans, I have been blissfully oblivious to life in countries outside my own. I was first introduced to more recent Afghan history in Khaled Hosseini’s powerful novel The Kite Runner. And now, even more than when The Kite Runner was first published in 2003, Afghanistan is leaning heavily on our minds. Afghanistan is not simply some sand-filled land in Far-Far-Away. It is a country rich in history and culture, a country that has often been the victim of conquer and invasion. In The Widow’s Husband, Ansary focuses on the 19th century British invasion of Afghanistan and the chaotic, unsettling results upon the Afghan people.
  
  There is a dual story here. First, we are introduced to the people in the tiny village of Char Bagh. Ibrahim is the malik, the leader, of the village. He is deemed not fit to lead by the elders, partly because he is too young, partly because he is a scholar who prefers to spend his time reading great poets. He is a man of yearning—yearning for a greater connection to his God, and yearning for Khadija, his widowed sister-in-law. His wife, Soraya, is emotionally unstable and not the pillar of support that Khadija is. When a stranger, a vagabond, begins living near the village, only Khadija and Ibrahim recognize him for what he is—a malang, a holy man. Ibrahim’s devotion to the malang sends him on a journey from his isolated village to the city of Kabul.
  
  The second story revolves around the British troops stationed in Afghanistan. They have recently installed a new king, a man who will be sympathetic to their cause, in other words, pliant. As the two stories intertwine, the novel goes from an account of a little-known time in Afghanistan history to a page-turner. The plot twists left me guessing which way the story would go next. How will Ibrahim deal with British interference in his remote village? Who will outsmart who? Will the British walk away triumphant, or will the Afghans? The Widow’s Husband is a study in how easily different cultures can misunderstand each other and how easily those misunderstandings can turn to violence.
  
  There are many strengths in this novel. Ansary manages to switch back and forth between the voices of the Afghans and the British in a believable way where you can hear the cadence of each accent in your head as you read the words on the page. The characters, particularly Ibrahim, Khadija, the malang, and Oxley, a British soldier, are fully realized. Ibrahim is a well-developed protagonist. He is a case of contradictions, on the one hand devoutly pious, a man who would rather read poetry or his holy book than fight a neighboring village over necessary water. On the other hand, he is surprisingly indifferent towards his own wife while harboring love, and lust, over his widowed sister-in-law. There is a certain realism, a poetic correctness in the ending, even if it was not be exactly the ending I wished for.
  
  If you are interested in 19th century Afghanistan history, in British invasions during the Empire years, or you simply wish to read a story about love, yearning, and struggle in the face of adversity, you will enjoy The Widow’s Husband.
  
• 
  Linda C.

  Good historical fiction transports the reader into another place and time and serves to bring the past back "to life." It allows the reader to understand historical events, that often appear larger than life, to be brought down to a human level through the eyes of a character.
  
  In The Widow's Husband we see life in a small village of Char Bagh in rural Afghanistan in the 19th century. The concerns of family, community, as well as having enough food stores to last through winter is recognizable, even if the names and customs are unusual to our "western" ears. The routine of rural life in Char Bagh is disrupted by the arrival of a stranger. Hospitality is extended to the man and it soon becomes apparent that he is not a normal traveler, but is instead a mystic. This holy man attracts pilgrims from miles around. Soon the reputation of Char Bagh is even noticed by the British military who have settled in Kabul which then threatens the peacefulness and stability of the village.
  
  The novel shows how the British colonized Afghanistan: bribery and force.
  
  Attempts by the British to interact with the Afghan people without attempting to understand their customs and traditions led to the inevitable clash depicted in the novel when the people revolted in response to the mistreatment of their women and girls.
  
  The Widow's Husband serves to illuminate events from history and allow us to draw parallels to current events from our own military campaigns and why it is important to be there with the consent of the people.
• 
  Jenny

  This is a historical fiction centered during the time of the English occupation of Afghanistan in the 1840s, as it relates to a village chieftain and a Sufi mystic who comes to live there.
  
  What was so striking to me was how blurred things got in my mind between Afghanistan in the 1840s vs present-day. Of course, having heard the author speak on a panel about current policy in Afghanistan gives me some insight on his position on the matter, so it is almost certainly not by accident that the parallels exist. However, more than just expressing the sentiment of how naive imperialists are, I think he makes a more complex statement about cultural ego-centrism. Makes me shake my head and again think about how important it is for people to go beyond their own borders (real and symbolic).
  
  If you liked The Kite Runner or Ansary's memoir East of New York, West of Kabul, then you will certainly like this novel.
  
  The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was that I felt the narrating (albeit in the 3rd person) characters were unevenly developed and the end of the story came very abruptly.
  
  And now, I need to go look up some Afghan-English history to learn which of the events in the novel were real, and which were imagined...
• 
  Casi Graddy-Gamel

  I've never really learned anything about the experience of the Afghan people and Ansary's non-fiction work, "Game Without Rules" was intriguing and prompted me to pick up this historical fiction. It's absolutely fascinating. The author taps into a point in Afghan history (1840s) right as the British come to install a puppet monarch and disrupt the entire region. In looking at it through a village's lens, readers get a much better understanding of the tribal culture of Afghanistan and exactly why the British arrival (and subsequent attempts to conquer the region) have led to such failure and bloodshed.
• 
  Peggy Kelsey

  This fascinating and well-written story gives insight into the conflict in Afghanistan today. The village life described here isn't much different from village life there today. I highly recommend it.
• 
  Patricia V. Davis

  This book is NOT to be missed! A brilliantly woven work of fiction that highlights the truths of where we are today.
• 
  Ann Chamberlin

  Poor editing mars what is otherwise a terrific book; alas, it probably won't receive the press it deserves.
• 
  Christa

  Afghanistan
• 
  Barbara Finkelstein

  A superior example of historical fiction about 19th-century Afghanistan. Tamim's Bookpod audio essay:
  http://www.bookpod.org/a-novelist-s-t...
• 
  Erika Mailman

  This book is so literary, so gorgeously crafted. Each word a jewel. Tamim Ansary is not only a fantastic nonfiction author, but also a striking novelist as well.
• 
  Lily Caravello

  A beautifully written story that made me think about how we view mental illness in the modern world. Ansary gives us such insight into the complicated and fascinating country of Afghanistan.