Thunder Over Kandahar

The plight of women in the Taliban-controlled mountains of Afghanistan moves women all over the world. Mozhan Marno narrates a gripping adventure story about two teenage girls who are abandoned by their traveling escort and left to journey on their own through mountain passes and across borders, with guns and bombs on every side. Marno brings Tamanna, who suffers from a limp, and British/Afghan Yasmine to life. Yasmine's well-educated parents can't seem to see that their very education makes the family a target for the Taliban. The use of Afghan words draws listeners in, anchoring us in time and place. American soldiers have a strong presence in the story, and Marno gives them sympathetic voices as they struggle with a culture that's thoroughly non-Western. With exuberance yet careful control, Marno invites us to see through the mesh of a burqa. M.M.C. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine