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A review by gooders
The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller
3.0
I finished this book on the plane when we were flying home from holiday, giving me lots of time to consider how I felt about it.
After I’d finished my previous book, and not being bothered to search for ages to find my next read, I found this one that I’d already downloaded on my Kindle.
Bit of a back story - one of my favourite books EVER is ‘Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody’, a true story about an American woman who went to Iran with her husband, and her subsequent effort to escape from the country back to America. Her main problem being that people would transport her, but refused to take her daughter with them. As this story is about a young girl’s escape from Afghanistan after the Russian invasion in the 1980s, I thought this was right up my street.
Life for Enjeela in Kabul is full of happiness and everything she could ever want. Her mother comes from an incredibly rich family, and her father has built his own business up from moderately wealthy to be exceptionally so. She wants for nothing and leads an incredibly privileged life.
That is until the Russian invasion. Then follows Enjeela’s story as her mother leaves to go to India for a heart operation and does not return, her father battles alcoholism and refuses leave his beloved Kabul, regardless of the dangers and Enjeela’s viewpoint from the pear tree in her garden that she sits in and watches the changes happening to her beloved city.
Eventually, her father realises the danger he is in (he works for the American Embassy and has Russians following him and threatening him) and arranges to send his children with a guide over the mountains to safety in Pakistan, before meeting them there and continuing their journey together to their mother.
This book had some amazing imagery…which I found difficult to believe that a 6 year old girl would recall, as well as some heartbreaking stories and lives of others - particularly when Enjeela’s eyes are opened as they travel through the mountains and meet the impoverished villagers who live there.
Overall, slightly disappointed with this story as I expected more. Sometimes, months, even years, went by in this book with nothing actually happening. They were just written off. And the ending disappointed me. I didn’t find out what happened to her mother and father, or their planned emigration to America, or any of the other members of her family.
Can’t say that I’d recommend this one above others I’ve read that are in a similar vein.
After I’d finished my previous book, and not being bothered to search for ages to find my next read, I found this one that I’d already downloaded on my Kindle.
Bit of a back story - one of my favourite books EVER is ‘Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody’, a true story about an American woman who went to Iran with her husband, and her subsequent effort to escape from the country back to America. Her main problem being that people would transport her, but refused to take her daughter with them. As this story is about a young girl’s escape from Afghanistan after the Russian invasion in the 1980s, I thought this was right up my street.
Life for Enjeela in Kabul is full of happiness and everything she could ever want. Her mother comes from an incredibly rich family, and her father has built his own business up from moderately wealthy to be exceptionally so. She wants for nothing and leads an incredibly privileged life.
That is until the Russian invasion. Then follows Enjeela’s story as her mother leaves to go to India for a heart operation and does not return, her father battles alcoholism and refuses leave his beloved Kabul, regardless of the dangers and Enjeela’s viewpoint from the pear tree in her garden that she sits in and watches the changes happening to her beloved city.
Eventually, her father realises the danger he is in (he works for the American Embassy and has Russians following him and threatening him) and arranges to send his children with a guide over the mountains to safety in Pakistan, before meeting them there and continuing their journey together to their mother.
This book had some amazing imagery…which I found difficult to believe that a 6 year old girl would recall, as well as some heartbreaking stories and lives of others - particularly when Enjeela’s eyes are opened as they travel through the mountains and meet the impoverished villagers who live there.
Overall, slightly disappointed with this story as I expected more. Sometimes, months, even years, went by in this book with nothing actually happening. They were just written off. And the ending disappointed me. I didn’t find out what happened to her mother and father, or their planned emigration to America, or any of the other members of her family.
Can’t say that I’d recommend this one above others I’ve read that are in a similar vein.