Come from the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan

Come from the Shadows is not about the Afghanistan we may think we know. It is not about the country depicted in urgent dispatches from embedded reporters; it isn't about the country evoked by anti-war protestors or the one that figures in heated political controversies over the treatment of prisoners. Instead, this is a book about the Afghanistan that lies outside the wire, far from the Taliban's grim desert strongholds. The country we visit with award-winning author Terry Glavin is a surprisingly welcoming place, hidden away in alleys and narrow streets that bustle with blacksmiths, seamstresses, gem hawkers, cobblers and spice merchants. This Afghanistan is reawakening from decades of savagery and bloodletting, and its people are deeply thankful for the aid from foreign soldiers. In the voices of the people he meets on his journey, Glavin reveals how events have unfolded in Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. In the life story of his friend and travel companion--writer, translator and activist Abdulrahim Parwani -- we learn of Afghanistan's agonies over the past thirty years. Come from the Shadows is a passionate challenge to the usual depiction of the war in Afghanistan.

About the Author :
Terry Glavin is the author of six books and the co-author of four, traversing a variety of subjects from anthropology to natural history. He has won more than a dozen literary and journalism awards, including the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, and in 2009 was the recipient of the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. His writing appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and online publications as diverse as Democratiya (New York), Lettre Internationale (Berlin), the National Post, Canadian Geographic and The Tyee. He is a founding member of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

Review :
[Glavin] provides an alternative to the usual Western media portrait, particularly of Afghan women, who rely on foreigners for security while boldly rebuilding their society. Come from the Shadows was chosen as a Great Reads for Fall 2011 by Ms. Magazine.—Ms Magazine, Nov 28, 2011 What [Glavin] reports is not hateful, anti-Western spite perpetuated by 10 years of war and civilian casualties, but a sense of tentative optimism -- a better-than-before place where the people are beginning to find solace in an environment of peace brought by foreign soldiers.—The Martlet, Nov 3, 2011 Journalist Terry Glavin's book Come from the Shadows is an impassioned account of what we should know but don't about Afghanistan.—Vancouver Sun, Oct 21, 2011 Glavin does his job well. The best parts of Come from the Shadows involve his travels in the country, often in the company the Abdulrahim Parwani, a remarkable Afghan-Canadian man, well drawn in Glavin's text. We meet democrats, partisans, activists and scholars. Some are powerful, some simply brave.—Maclean's, Oct 6, 2011 The best journalism exists to refute self-serving and self-satisfied prejudices. With reporting from the ground and historical scholarship, Terry Glavin demolishes our illusions about Afghanistan, and produces a book that is at once an assault on received wisdom and a humane defence of the rights of subjugated peoples.—Nick Cohen, author of What's Left?, Jun 22, 2011