THOUSAND ROOMS OF DREAMS AND FEAR; TRANS. BY SARAH MAGUIRE

"Set in Kabul just before the Soviet invasion of December 1979, this extraordinary book is both the story of a student in fear for his life, and the story of Afghanistan - a beautiful, wounded country torn apart by religion and politics. Its action takes place over just two nights; its events are triggered by the random persecution of a young man as he makes his way home one evening, a little drunk, and is set upon by soldiers. Beaten to a pulp, Farhad is dragged by a strange woman into her house where he spends the night half believing he has died and is suffering the deserved punishment of an infidel. Yet as the reality of his situation starts to assert itself and he learns the terrible story of the woman who harbours him, he begins to feel an impossible and forbidden love for her - a love that embodies an angry compassion for the suffering of Afghanistan's women, and the yearning for a lost home." "A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear is a novel of interiors. It unfolds almost entirely within the confines of a house, a mosque and a mind. As Rahimi leads us through his claustrophobic labyrinth - as maze-like as the patterns on an Afghan carpet - he takes us ever deeper into the soul and imagination of his country."--Jacket.