The Lovers, Rod Nordland
The Lovers, Rod Nordland
2 Rating(s)
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The Lovers
Afghanistan's Romeo and Juliet, the True Story of How They Defied Their Families and Escaped an Honor Killing

Author: Rod Nordland

Narrator: Peter Ganim

Unabridged: 12 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/26/2016


Synopsis

A riveting, real-life equivalent of The Kite Runner—an astonishingly powerful and profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women’s rights in the Muslim world.Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but they grew up on neighboring farms in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. By the time they were young teenagers, Zakia, strikingly beautiful and fiercely opinionated, and Ali, shy and tender, had fallen in love. Defying their families, sectarian differences, cultural conventions, and Afghan civil and Islamic law, they ran away together only to live under constant threat from Zakia’s large and vengeful family, who have vowed to kill her to restore the family’s honor. They are still in hiding.Despite a decade of American good intentions, women in Afghanistan are still subjected to some of the worst human rights violations in the world. Rod Nordland, then the Kabul bureau chief of the New York Times, had watched these abuses unfold for years when he came upon Zakia and Ali, and has not only chronicled their plight, but has also shepherded them from danger.The Lovers will do for women’s rights generally what Malala’s story did for women’s education. It is an astonishing story about self-determination and the meaning of love that illustrates, as no policy book could, the limits of Western influence on fundamentalist Islamic culture and, at the same time, the need for change.

About Rod Nordland

Rod Nordland is the New York Times’s Pulitzer Prize–winning international correspondent at large. Formerly the paper’s Kabul bureau chief, he has worked as a foreign correspondent in more than 150 countries. Previously he was Newsweek’s chief foreign correspondent, serving as Baghdad bureau chief from 2003–2005. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for news reporting and also a finalist for a Pulitzer in international reporting from Southeast Asia. He has received two George Polk awards; several Overseas Press Club awards, and many other honors. He is the author of The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo & Juliet.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Olivia on April 02, 2020

I think Zakia and Ali's story is a story worth telling, especially because it speaks to dangerous cultural norms in Afghanistan. It also contributes to a wider narrative about ensuring the rights of women around the world. However, I'm not sure that Rod Nordland did their story justice. To me, it se......more

Goodreads review by Anne-Marie on February 03, 2016

I began this book early in the evening, and couldn't put it down until well after midnight, until my kindle battery finally died. The story of this romance reads like a thriller, rendered with a wealth of detail that makes it compelling, vivid and immediate. This is the story of a forbidden love mat......more

Goodreads review by Kelsey on November 30, 2016

Actual Rating: 3.5 This book is both incredibly inspiring and completely frustrating. On the one hand, it shows the power of love and how two young people are willing to risk everything just to be together. Plus, it shows how willing people around the world are to help them. On the other hand, it als......more

Goodreads review by Gsmyles on March 18, 2017

Long and repetitive in many aspects, but interesting to learn about honor killing and the horrors of falling in love in Afghanistan. The book went on forever and felt like I was reading the same plot over and over as the two main characters hide, move, hide, move, ask for money, hide, ask for money,......more

Goodreads review by Ken on March 21, 2016

The Lovers is a love story. Of course it is. But it’s also a news story. A news story about women’s rights. A news story about what U.S. intervention has and hasn’t done in Afghanistan. And a news story about some of the most backward social customs on earth. The author, Rod Nordland, is a journalist......more