A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story

Qais Akbar Omar

Sep 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Neil Shah

About this audiobook

Twenty-three years ago-after the Soviets left and before the Taliban came to power-Kabul was a garden where seven-year-old Qais Akbar Omar flew kites from the roof of his grandfather's house. Then came the hollow sounds of rocket fire as the Mujahedin, self-proclaimed holy warriors, took over Afghanistan, and the country erupted in civil war. Omar's family fled, leaving everything behind to take shelter in an old fort. But after a narrow escape from death, his father decided that the family must leave the country. Yet the journey proved more difficult than anticipated, and in this stunning coming-of-age memoir, Omar offers a moving recollection of these events-a story of daily hardships, relieved by moments of joy and immense beauty. Inflected with folktales and steeped in poetry, A Fort of Nine Towers is a life-affirming triumph.

About the author

Qais Akbar Omar is coauthor of A Night in the Emperor's Garden, which has been dramatized by BBC Radio. He has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, the Sunday Times, the Globe and Mail, and the Cairo Review of Global Affairs. In 2014-15 Omar was a Scholars at Risk Fellow at Harvard University.

Neil Shah is an Audie Award-nominated narrator and AudioFile Earphones Award winner who has recorded over one hundred audiobooks. A classically trained actor with an MFA from the Old Globe/University of San Diego program, Neil has appeared off-Broadway and on regional stages, as well as in film and television.