An Afghan-American journalist is the first to offer a revealing look inside women’s lives involved in Afghanistan’s drug trade. From the farmer to the smuggler and child bride, Nawa discovers the underworld of the multi-billion dollar narcotics industry while she revisits her own family’s deep roots to the land.

 

“An insightful and informative look at the global challenge of Afghan drug trade. Fariba Nawa weaves her personal story of reconnecting with her homeland after 9/11 with a very engaging narrative that chronicles Afghanistan’s dangerous descent into opium trafficking, its impact on the U.S. campaign, and most revealingly, how the drug trade has damaged the lives of ordinary Afghan people.”

   — Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

 

“Powerful. . . . Nawa draws rich, complex portraits of subjects on both sides of the law . . . Nawa’s work is remarkable for its depth, honesty, and commitment to recording women’s stories, even when it means putting her own safety at risk. She writes with passion about the history of her volatile homeland and with cautious optimism about its future.”

— Publishers Weekly

 

“Nawa ably captures the tragic complexity of Afghan society and the sheer difficulty of life there. . . . Her assured narrative clearly stems from in-depth reporting in a risk-laden environment.”

— Kirkus Reviews

 

 “Like most people, I know a bit about what is going on, but these close up stories are very uncomfortable and unputdownable.”

— New Zealand’s Otaga Daily Times

 

“A journalist whose work has appeared widely, Nawa deftly sketches the geopolitical nightmare that is today’s Afghanistan, but the book’s real strength is her detailed, sensitive reporting of individual people’s stories.”

— The Boston Globe

What readers say about Opium Nation:

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