The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

 

Every time I read the title I find myself humming the words along to the theme of the Little Shop of Horrors. Which is both entirely inappropriate given the film topic vs book topic and also really annoying because the words don't fit properly and I have to rush them through to fit.

Anyway, back to the actual book. I don't really enjoy reading books set in Afghanistan. I find myself stressed and on edge, waiting for the next awful thing to happen. But that doesn't necessarily mean I don't think they're good. A Thousand Splendid Suns, for example, was amazing. This one is ..... ok.

It's kind of "Chick lit" set in a war zone, I guess. I was thinking it's a bit like if JoJo Moyes wrote a book set in the Middle East, but I've never read a JoJo Moyes book so I wasn't 100% sure. Then I noticed that on the cover it says, "As if Maeve Binchy had written The Kite Runner". I've never read a Maeve Binchy either but I'm guessing this means I was pretty spot on? So it's not particularly heavy going, a couple of war zone type incidents but they are not the focus.

The book revolves around the cafe, sorry - Coffee Shop, run by Sunny. Sunny is American, moved to Afghanistan with her boyfriend, Tommy. Tommy is mostly absent as he is some sort of non-specific mercenary. Her customers include Isabel, a British reporter, and Candace, an American rich lady who has left her husband for an Afghani man who runs a charity-funded school for orphans. The cafe building is owned by Halajan, an older Afghani lady who is old enough to remember the old ways and dislike the new. She lives there with her son who is struggling to balance the old and new traditions. Also living there is Yasmina, who escaped from men who took her as repayment for a debt owed by her uncle, she is pregnant with her late husband's baby. The final key character is Jack, Sunny's good friend, and potential new love interest.

The plot just sort of potters through life in Kabul. Like, normal day-to-day life. Which is great actually, it shows people just getting on with it. There are bombs, there are deaths, there is poverty, and there is day-to-day fear. And there is life just continuing. People making plans, and going about their daily lives. It definitely doesn't belittle life in a war zone, not at all, but it does make you realise people are out there just trying to get by.

The author used to live in Kabul, she's American and moved there in 2002, after 9/11. She went with a team of doctors to help out but ended up running a beauty school, co-owned a coffee house, and married an Afghan man. Obviously, her experiences are represented in the story, which gives it an authenticity and, I think, is why it's not at all patronising. The interview with her at the back of the book is eye-opening and possibly more interesting than the rest of the book, to be honest!

So overall, a bit chicklit-ish but great to get a different angle on the Kabul story.