Tali Girls by Siamak Herawi

DESCRIPTION

Based on true stories, Tali Girls offers an intimate look at the lives, loves, horrors and dreams of three girls in an Afghan mountain village under Taliban rule. Their voices offer a vivid picture of the endless cycle of suffering that girls and women in the grip of the Taliban authorities face. Kowsar, Geesu and Simin illuminate that power of love and generosity in the face of oppression and violence. Their stories are testaments of resilience, courage and hope. In Sara Khalil's vibrant and nuanced translation, Tali Girls tears down the veil of silence and exposes the treacherous realities women must confront in war-torn Afghanistan today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SIAMAK HERAWI, recognized as one of Afghanistan's most vital writers, was born in Afghanistan's Herat province in 1968. He studied Persian language and literature at Kabul University and, later, Russian literature in Moscow. Herawi began a career as a reporter and, in 2003, he was appointed deputy spokesperson for President Hamid Kharzai, a position he held until 2012.

SARA KHALIL is an editor and translator of contemporary Iranian and Afghan literature. Her translations include the works of Shahriar Mandanipour, Goli Taraghi, Parinoush Saniee, Shahrnush Parsipur, and Yaghoub Yadali. She also translated In the Meadow of Fantasies by Hadi Mohammadi and Nooshin Safakhoo, which in 2022 received a Batchelder Honor from the American Library Association.

PRAISE

"Eloquent and saddening." — Kirkus, starried review

"Tali Girls is as painful to read as it is necessary. The world must not turn away. The reader of this searing story cannot." — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

"In Siamak Herawi's Tali Girls, translated into crystalline English by Sara Khalil, we enter into an Afghanistan where women and girls earn every measure of their joy amidst lives torn asunder by a relentless conspiracy of empires. Tali Girls is an unforgettable story filled with characters I will carry with me." — Kaveh Akbar

"Tali Girls is an electrifying book. Swift, devastating and unforgettable." — Justin Torres

DETAILS

Paperback | 381 pages