His shop is said to have the largest collection of books on Afghanistan, but Rice’s love of the classics means his shelves also include a wide range of literary works.
Book for one Afghan bookseller became an international bestseller twenty years ago and now its famous protagonist is in London seeking asylum.
In the spring of 2002, after the overthrow of Taliban by the US military and its allies, Norwegian journalist Osne Sjeerstad spent four months with the bookstore owner in Kabul, Shah Muhammad Rais and his family.
Documenting her experience in non-fiction work, “The Bookseller of Kabul” (The Bookseller of Kabul) has created a moving portrait of an Afghan family managing the sometimes contradictory tensions between cultural conservatism and the desire for political freedom.
Two decades later, with the Taliban returning to power in August, Rice is now waiting for his asylum case to be processed, having arrived at a UK airport in September, according to Britain’s “The Guardian” newspaper.
He is currently living with other asylum seekers in a hotel designated by the UK Home Office. The 68-year-old said the UK was the “only door open” for him to seek safety from the hardline group in Afghanistan.
Rice is not believed to be among the approximately 15,000 people removed from Afghanistan by the UK government under the Afghanistan Migration and Assistance Policy last summer.
The bookseller said that during the relatively liberal years between the Taliban’s periods in Afghanistan, 2002-2020, it sold more than 15,000 copies of European and American literature.
His famous store is said to have the largest collection of books on Afghanistan under one roof, but Rice’s love of the classics means his shelves also include a wide range of literary works by William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy and Rumi.
If his asylum claim is accepted in the UK, the bookseller wants to open an Afghan reading room at the British Library. He is currently writing a book about the land and culture of Afghanistan and says his dream is to open a multicultural bookstore for people from central Asia.
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