When journalist Taran Khan arrives in Kabul, she uncovers a place that defies her expectations. Her wanderings with other Kabulis reveal a fragile city in a state of flux: stricken by near-constant war, but flickering with the promise of peace; governed by age-old codes but experimenting with new modes of living.
Her walks take her to the unvisited tombs of the dead, and to the land of the living – like the booksellers, archaeologists, film-makers and entrepreneurs who are remaking this 3,000-year-old city. And as NATO troops begin to withdraw from the country, Khan watches the cycle of transformation begin again.
I have always thought of Afghanistan as a war-torn place. My first impression of it was as a child in the wake of 9/11. Over the next two decades, it has faded in and out of the Western news, resurfacing only when there has been an attack or a humanitarian crisis to report on.
Khan’s Kabul is not like that. Khan’s Kabul is a place of fables, Afghan poetry, a proud history. These are the threads that bind Kabulis together, rebuilding their lives in the city after each period of unrest.
I had expected Shadow City to be a chronological account of Khan’s frequent visits there over the period the book covers (2006 to 2014) but she actually writes about Kabul in layers, choosing one aspect of the city for each chapter. She visits Afghan wedding venues, cemeteries and cinemas, speaking with the people working in those places and finding out how and why that place is like it is.
Although Kabul is presented in these fleeting glimpses, Khan does still convey a sense of the changes to Kabul year on year. She portrays it as a fluctuating and changeable city, adaptable to political and economic changes, resilient, determined to build itself back up again after each blow. People flee, and people return.
Almost all of Khan’s experiences were new to me. I had not realised there was a blossoming film industry in Afghanistan (‘Kabuliwood’) or that Afghan weddings could be as extravagant as Khan describes. In fact, Shadow City is an inquisitive traveller’s dream – living in Kabul for long periods at a time, Khan immerses herself in Kabuli life, seeking to experience the city in its most authentic form.
There is rather less walking than the title of this book suggests, largely because Khan befriends a taxi driver who reappears often throughout the book, always willing to transport her to the next cinema or cemetery whilst recalling a stream of anecdotes from the lifetime he has spent in Kabul. But it’s a fascinating insight into a city many of us are unlikely ever to visit, and one which has undoubtedly changed again since Khan’s last visit.
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