Samira and Samir: The Heart Rendering Story of Love and Oppression in Afghanistan

This is a badly written book which is so blunt and very hard to get into. The author does not have style which entices readers in. It was so boring that I skipped chapters just to find the only part which I thought may be interesting where Bashir discovers Samir is a female. I would never recommend this book to anyone and found it a waste of my money!

I loved it, worth the time and money spended (0/0 people found this helpful)

While reading this book,i enjoyed every second of it. The writer style is amazing. I was occupied with this story till I finished it. The writer touched a very sensetive issues in the comunity that has never been touched and dealt with in the way she did. From today I will look for the writer name when i want to choose a book. You must read.

Badly Written - A Dissapointment (1/1 people found this helpful)

After reading the bookseller of Kabul I wanted to read more about Afghanistan. The premise sounded really intriguing but was poorly executed. It is supposedly based on a true story of the daughter of an Afghan tribal leader who is raised as a boy. However unlike The Bookseller of Kabul which was a true story which reads like fiction it comes across as completely made up and unreadable. The style was extremely difficult to read and lack of speech marks made it hard to tell whether something was being said or just thought. Also the repetition of certain phrases and images became more and more irritating as the book went on.

The most enjoyable part of the book for me was when she met her Grandfather as I felt I could really visualize him and he was an interesting character. However that is just a small section of the book.
I was really dissapointed that such an interesting story was told it such an unenjoyable way. When I finished it, which was an achievement in itself, I sold it which is something I never do. I got less than I paid for it but I was happy to get at least some of my money back. I would advise loaning this book from a library before you think of buying it to see if you enjoy the unusual style and aren't bothered by the things that spoiled the story for me.

better off choosing A Thousand Splendid Suns (1/1 people found this helpful)

I really did not like reading this book. I wanted to read more about women in Afghanistan after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns (which was probably the best book I have ever read). However this book I found tedious to read. The writing style is awful and why are there no speech marks? There are so many irritating repeated phrases throughout the book I felt as if I would scream if I read one more time. I have given it 2* as the story is OK, but the writing style ruins it.

Worth Reading-Excellent (21/22 people found this helpful)

This book was a very good read. I was enticed in the book from the moment i started it to the moment i put it down.

It is a story about a father who wants a boy so desperately that he bring up his first child a girl' as a boy. Her parents didn't have anymore children, so her father continue to treat Samira as a boy and taught her to fight, ride horses, shoot and many more men tasks. This is a very difficult senario to be in for Samira/Samir and the older she got the more difficult it became for her. Her father didn't have to bear the affects of this, as he died when Samira was still a child. It only became difficult when she fell in love with a friend that she realised that the effects of being a girl will change her future. The problems arised when the girl started developing into a female that her destinity had to be changed and only Samira on her own had to decide what she wanted to be at the time and what she wanted to become in the future.

Samira showed courage, strength and showed those people that identify women as weak that they can be as strong as men are. Samira became her mother's strength and she became her grandfathers missing arm. She wasn't scared and dealt and acted as men did naturally and found it difficult to behave as a real women when she really had to try too for her love of her friend who became her husband.

It is one of the best books i have read and the style of writing is very diffent, but good.

Samira and Samir: The Heart Rendering Story of Love and Oppression in Afghanistan

Siba Shakib

Reader Reviews:

Samir and Samira (0/0 people found this helpful)

I loved it, worth the time and money spended (0/0 people found this helpful)

Badly Written - A Dissapointment (1/1 people found this helpful)

better off choosing A Thousand Splendid Suns (1/1 people found this helpful)

Worth Reading-Excellent (21/22 people found this helpful)

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