The Punishment of Virtue

This work is suitable for readers of George Packer's "The Assassin's Gate", Asne Seierstad's "The Bookseller of Kabul", Christina Lamb's "The Sewing Circles of Herat", Jason Burke's "Al Qaeda", Rory Stewart's "The Places In-Between", Samantha Power's "A Problem from Hell", and Azir Nafisi's "Reading Lolita In Tehran." What happens when the War on Terror media circus packs up and leaves town? Sarah Chayes has spent the past six years in Afghanistan in order to find out. Living in the old capital Kandahar, dressing like a man, and befriending the heroic Chief of Police, Akrem, she gains unparalleled access to tribal leaders, cunning warlords, jihadist insurgents and opium traders, as well as politicians, security chiefs and Pakistani Intelligence agents - all contending for power in this uniquely strategic place at a pivotal moment in its history. Hers is an urgent book, and a mesmerizingly readable story.