Summary: 4/21/10. By: Brittney Hinner

In the foreward, the book's author, Asne Seierstad gave background information on not only herself, but also Sultan Khan, a.k.a, the bookseller of Kabul. Seierstad during 2001, "spent six weeks in Afganistant with the commandos of the Northern Alliance" and while in Kabul, met Sultan Khan. Khan, was a man whom she became facinated with, due to his stories "about his battles against the different regimes and their censors, how he launched his personal flight, hiding books from the police, lending them out to others-and finally going to prison for it." And, after hearing Khan's stories, an inspired Seierstad decided to write a book about them, and with Sultan Khan's permissin moved in with him and his family.

The first chapter titled The Proposal, goes into detail about how Sultan went about marrying his second wife, Sonya. In this chapter, Seierstad focuses her writing not only on Khan's feelings, but more on the women's feelings. She writes how Sultan Khan's mother, sisters, and first wife, Sharifa disapproved of the engagement. Sharifa, who was not warned before the news of the intended marriage was said to have cried for twenty days, and could not bring herself to attend the wedding. With such a focus on the females and their emotions so early in the book, one may guess that the role of women will continue to be of constant focus of this book.

The second chapter titled Burning Books gives an indepth look at the stories that Seierstad had orginally been facinated with. She writes the stories wile including pieces of historical information within them, that in the end gives the reader a richer knowledge of the situations being discribed.