The latest addition to my website is Jamil Jan Kochai‘s 99 Nights in Logar. This is a first-class novel about an Afghan family, narrated by a twelve-year old boy, Marwan, who lives in the US but is visiting his home country with his parents. He is at war with his extended family’s dog, Budabash, but when Budabash has had enough and disappears, he and four other boys go in search for him, and have a series of adventures in still war-torn, still Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The search does not go well. Back home, love and marriage, flooding and even a bit of cross-dressing liven things up, as we see more of the war and its effects, with US forces still bombing and the Taliban roaming the countryside. The book is substantially improved by a series of Arabian Nights-style contemporary fables told by various characters. Kochai is an excellent story-teller and this book is a joy to read.