Twenty Years
Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation
by Sune Engel Rasmussen
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Pub Date Aug 06 2024 | Archive Date Sep 06 2024
Description
One of the Washington Post's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
An Economist Best Book of the Year | An Air Mail editor's pick
"Rasmussen combines social history with rigorous reporting . . . His ability to delve into [his characters'] lives lends his book the feeling of a novel . . . Trenchant . . . Superlative." —Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post
An intimate history of the Afghan war—and the young Afghans whose dreams it enabled and dashed.
No country was more deeply affected by 9/11 than Afghanistan: an entire generation grew up amid the upheaval that began that day. Young Afghans knew the promise of freedom, democracy, and safety, fought with each other over its meaning—and then witnessed its collapse. In Twenty Years, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Sune Engel Rasmussen draws on more than a decade of reporting from the country to tell Afghanistan’s story from a new angle. Through the eyes of newly empowered women, skilled entrepreneurs, driven insurgents, and abandoned Western allies, we see the United States and its partners bring new freedoms and wealth, only to preside over the corruption, war-lordism, and social division that led to the Taliban’s return to power.
Rasmussen relates this history via two main characters: Zahra, who returns from abroad with high hopes for her liberated county, where she must fight to escape a brutal marriage and rebuild her life; and Omari, who joins the Taliban to protect the honor of his village and country and winds up wrestling with doubt and the trauma of war after achieving victory. We also meet Parasto, who risks her life running clandestine girls’ schools under the new Taliban regime, and Fahim, a rags-to-riches tycoon who is forced to flee. With intimate access to these and other characters, Rasmussen offers deep insight into a country betrayed by the West and Taliban alike.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"[Rasmussen] offers poignant explorations of Afghan lives over two tumultuous decades . . . A diligent, humane guide to the chaotic lives of ordinary citizens finding their way . . . Sharp [and] memorable." —Kirkus Reviews
“An unflinching, knowledgeable examination of betrayed hopes, broken fates, and damaged lives—the record of America’s failed experiment to remake Afghanistan. Sune Engel Rasmussen has crisscrossed the country and delivered a deeply empathetic book that illuminates the human toll exacted on the Afghans—those who had believed in American promises of a better future, and those who had fought America in the battlefield.” —Yaroslav Trofimov, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Our Enemies Will Vanish
"Sune Engel Rasmussen has crafted a rich narrative showing how America's longest war affected Afghans, from the women who bought into the idea that they could help chart their country's future to the men who were skeptical of the future that the West would actually deliver. He's managed to weave together all the faces of Afghanistan, and all the complexities, contradictions, surprises and tragedies lived over decades of conflict. His book manages to be both a lesson in empathy and a vital snapshot of history." —Kim Barker, author of The Taliban Shuffle
"Sune Engel Rasmussen's coverage of Afghanistan has long been superlative. Now comes his excellent book, which is deeply reported, well-written, and moving, telling the story of America's abandonment of the Afghan people. It's a somber story that he tells very well." —Peter Bergen, author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden
“The war in Afghanistan was a strategic calamity for America and a catastrophic tragedy for the people of that country. We have yet to fully understand that conflict and come to terms with its impact on the people of Afghanistan. Twenty Years is a rare account of what the war did to Afghanistan, tracing the rise and fall of hopes for a nation, and the despair that became its fate. Relying on his extensive reporting during the war, Sune Engel Rasmussen looks at what happened to the country through the eyes of its people, showing how they experienced the promise of change, and faced the daily horrors of war. This is at once an empathetic human story and an insightful history of the Afghan war. The lessons Rasmussen draws are urgent and poignant, ones that we would do well to heed.” —Vali Nasr, professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat
"Twenty Years is a model of courageous, hard-earned reporting and lucid, compelling writing. Not only one of the finest journalistic accounts of Afghanistan since 2001, it's a wise and moving work of literature about the transformative effect of war on families, nations, and history. Humbling, enlightening, and studded with moments of improbable hope and beauty." —Nick McDonell, author of The Bodies in Person and The Civilization of Perpetual Movement
"An epic and elegantly-woven tale of struggle, triumph and loss, of the young lives made and shattered by the West's misadventure in Afghanistan. Rasmussen is a careful and dedicated observer of Afghanistan's lost generation." —Matthieu Aikins, contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and author of The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374609948 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 352 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Rob C, Reviewer
I was an Embedded Trainer in the Afghan National Army back in Enduring Freedom IIi/IV. My experience at War was with the Afghans and through that I was introduced to the richness of their culture and traditions.. There has been only one other book before this that I would recommend to people to read about to get to know Afghanistan that I was able to know, Kabul in Winter. I now have two that can help share about the complexities of who the people are and what has happened in Afghanistan.
My review:
One of my struggles as someone who has served in the military and gotten to live and be around Afghan people is to be able to describe the rich culture that is there. The ways that they have struggles according to ethnicity, gender, and where they are in the birth order of their family. Twenty Years, Hope, War and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation by Sune Engel Rasmussen conveys exactly these ideas. What is it like to grow up as a refugee and then return home? What are the options available for work and education in Afghanistan during this time? How different sides are being drawn up by the economic realities of the lives they are living. The effects of nepotism, corruption, and wealth in a war-torn country. In reading this book we can see how the goodwill of the Afghan people who had initial hope in what the West had to offer for their education and rights was betrayed.
I wanted to read this book specifically because of my experience as an Embedded Trainer in the Afghan Army. I had opportunities to sit down with Afghans for chai, negotiate for supplies with merchants in Kabul and Gardez for our Afghan Soldiers and as we moved to new places, what was needed to bring that garrison location online. I have often felt that the perspective of the people I had met is not being portrayed in the news or accounts that I have read about Afghanistan. This book contributes to correcting that deficiency.
Living in another culture can give a perspective that does not come from reading or watching media about it. It opens up conversations and shows the complexity that emerges from lived experiences. Afghanistan is a rich tapestry of contradictions and experiences that can be hard to explain to anyone who has not been there. In “Twenty Years” the author has been able to paint for us a detailed picture of the different interests and lives that have been the backdrop for the military actions that were ongoing in Afghanistan. For those who want to know more about his reporting and the sources that were used a chapter is dedicated to that topic at the end of the book
Sune has reported on Afghanistan since 2014 and was based in Kabul for three years for The Guardian and then continued to travel there and into the provinces for his stories. He has been a writer for The Wall Street Journal since 2018 which gives the reader credibility for his work as a journalist and storyteller. He is telling us real stories about real people, this is a work of nonfiction. He developed trust and rapport across genders and ethnicities in Afghanistan so that he could learn the “thoughts, or dreams of a person”. Making this a powerful tale is that they are all real conversations, none of his dialogue is fabricated or a composite of several people or their experiences.
At the heart of the book are “two characters whose conflicting experiences starkly indicate the broader divisions running through Afghanistan since 2001, Zahra (working for change as a woman and ethnic Hazara) and Omari (Hostile to U.S intervention and a member of the Taliban since he was 14.).There are four other main characters we get to know as the Twenty Years unfolds. Omari moves from being a jihadist to questioning those who sent him to war. Zahra whose parents return from Iran grows up, is married at 13, and we see how she is mistreated and her journey to be free from her abusive husband and find work to support her and her children. Fahim who grew up, became a translator for several European Military present and then moved on to become a contractor providing supplies, departing his country as the US presence pulled out. Parasto, whose parents let her know they would rather she had been a son, grows up against the grain of her society's expectations for girls and women, is educated works for the Afghan government, and then works to keep making education available for girls after the fall. Intertwined with each of these are what they believe is needed to be a good son, daughter, parent, and Muslim and the contradictions they will navigate as life happens.
The book is well written and readable without needing previous knowledge of the history and events that have happened in the region over the past 30 years. As the book works through its major movements of Ground Zero, Promises, The Undoing, and Exit Wounds we are introduced to men and women who are living what would be ordinary lives for Afghans during the turbulence of war. It provides us with in-depth descriptions of what their lives were like, the challenges they were facing, and the thoughts, dreams, and goals they had.
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