The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul: The heart-warming and uplifting international bestseller

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YAZMINA, a young pregnant woman stolen from her remote village and now abandoned on Kabul's violent streets. This was made all the more interesting knowing that the Author had lived and worked in Kabul so presumably had a deep insight into the workings of this city and Afghanistan in general. She also owned the Kabul Coffee House and is founder of Oasis Rescue - a non-profit teaching hairdressing to women in post-conflict areas. As the summary or the gist everywhere suggests, this book talks about the extraordinary life of 5 women - Sunny, Yazmina, Halajan, Candace, and Isabel in Afghanistan.

The idea behind this book was a beautiful one, and I can say without a doubt that the sheer genius of the idea has come across to the reader through the pages. I’m not a fan of love triangles in stories because I think it’s a clichéd and heavily overused plot-device, but luckily it didn’t feature heavily in the story and so it didn’t bother me too much. Halajan is the only character of interest with her no bullshit attitude, long hidden forbidden love story and passion for Rumi, but she alone is not enough to save this book from saccharine tedium. The scenarios are gripping but I wasn't much engaged by the Western characters portrayed, though details of daily life were fascinating. Readers will appreciate in-depth, sensory descriptions of this oft-mentioned and faraway place that most have never seen.It was a case of the ending being anticlimactic after the main body of the book being reasonably good reading - it could easily have earned another star had it had an ending with more impact. There is a small pen marking from a previous owner on the inside front page, otherwise no other pre-loved markings. The bravery of some of the characters is heart stopping and you will be willing for everyone’s safety.

I really enjoyed Yazmina’s story and the way in which the women rallied to help her in her predicament in many different ways. The 38-year-old American’s pride and joy is the Kabul Coffee House, where she brings hospitality to the expatriates, misfits, missionaries, and mercenaries who stroll through its doors.But the repercussions of a traumatic childhood far from home have left her struggling for her way in life. For me, there were times this book felt as though it was plodding along a bit and parts of the story that I just didn’t care about, it felt a bit pedestrian. The author has described the emotions of every character so beautifully and in such detail that the entire time I imagined myself sitting in one corner of the cafe, watching them with my naked eye. Unfortunately, he didn't realise that what the caption actually says is "As if Maeve Binchy had written the Kite Runner".