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Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Unfortunately, critics are going to compare Nemat Sadat’s novel about a young Afghani man, Kanishka (I am not sure if it’s a common name in Kabul, but the use of this name to invoke the historical Kushana king feel forced), and his love for his classmate and its aftermath set just before and after the Soviet–Afghan War in the late 1970s, with Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.

But this is an unfair comparison. As a piece of literature, Hosseini’s work is far more accomplished, yet the storytelling in The Kite Runner is consciously manipulative, largely targeted at a western audience. And you know it worked!

Sadat, the first person to come out as gay in Afghanistan, is far more honest and earnest and purposeful in The Carpet Weaver. The novel is a narrative of intentions. Sadat wants you to feel the complexities of same-sex love and its myriad manifestation in a country where the religion forbids it up close.

And the author succeeds, for most part.

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