A Door in the Earth Pdf Summary
For readers of Cutting for Stone and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a “breathtaking and achingly nuanced” (Kirkus, starred review) new novel from the author of the national bestseller The Submission about the journey of a young Afghan-American woman trapped between her ideals and the complicated truth.
Parveen Shamsa, a college senior in search of a calling, feels pulled between her charismatic and mercurial anthropology professor and the comfortable but predictable Afghan-American community in her Northern California hometown.
When she discovers a bestselling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has become a bible for American engagement in the country, she is inspired. Galvanized by Crane’s experience, Parveen travels to a remote village in the land of her birth to join the work of his charitable foundation.
When she arrives, however, Crane’s maternity clinic, while grandly equipped, is mostly unstaffed. The villagers do not exhibit the gratitude she expected to receive. And Crane’s memoir appears to be littered with mistakes, or outright fabrications. As the reasons for Parveen’s pilgrimage crumble beneath her, the U.S. military, also drawn by Crane’s book, turns up to pave the solde road to the village, bringing the war in their wake. When a fatal ambush occurs, Parveen must decide whether her loyalties lie with the villagers or the soldiers – and she must determine her own relationship to the truth.
Amy Waldman, who reported from Afghanistan for the New York Times after 9/11, has created a taut, propulsive novel about power, perspective, and idealism, brushing aside the dust of America’s longest-standing war to reveal the complicated truths beneath. A Door in the Earth is the rarest of books, one that helps us understand living history through poignant characters and unforgettable storytelling.
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A Door in the Earth Review
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2020
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Many of us in the U.S. have traveled to foreign countries feeling that we had something to offer them. I did so myself, as a missionary, for years. This book has made me contemplate this decision. Why did I do it? Was it truly for them or deep down inside was it for me? Did it do them any good for me to try to be their hero? For those of us who go no matter what our capacity (medical missions, military, and so forth) when all is said and done have we done them any good or were we really just after the personal high that comes from believing that we can rescue them in some way? When we leave, will they be better off because we went? Do we have a right to interfere with their way of living? Would we want them to come to our country and do the same? A thought provoking book for us who have gone overseas as well as for those who are thinking about going. I wish that I had read it years ago but still am very glad that I have read it now.
5.0 out of 5 stars Book Club Favorite
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 25, 2021
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A Door in the Earth was a very good read. Since the US has recently withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan, the subject matter resonated with our book club. Our presence in a country we truly know little about, may have done more harm than good. It puts a microscope on the tragedy of war and even the efforts of some you think they can change a culture for the “better”
5.0 out of 5 stars Six stars!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 18, 2020
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Amy Waldman hardly needs more good reviews, but I’d feel negligent not to add my recommendation. She’s clearly been there, understands the terrain, and has learned to be skeptical of those who arrive, claiming they want to help, but whose real motives are hidden, perhaps sometimes even from themselves.
A few years back, Greg Mortenson was the real-life pseudo-savior. He claimed to be building schools and promoting girls’ education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but his real skill was at building his own status and ego. “A Door in the Earth” is a novel; Waldman doesn’t claim to know just what motivated Mortenson. But in this fictionalized account of a pseudo-savior who built women’s health clinics, Waldman has given us a better understanding of people like Mortenson, and the problems they cause. She’s also given us an exceptionally absorbing, fast-paced book.
About Amy Waldman Author Of A Door in the Earth pdf Book
Amy Waldman is the author of two novels, A Door in the Earth pdf book, which will be published August 27, 2019, and The Submission, which was a national bestseller, a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist, and the #1 Book of the Year for Entertainment Weekly and Esquire. She has received fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, Ledig House for International Writers, the MacDowell Colony, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Waldman was previously a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a reporter for the New York Times, where, as a bureau chief for South Asia, she covered Afghanistan. She lives in Brooklyn.
A Door in the Earth pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company; First Edition (August 27, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316451576
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316451574
- Item Weight : 1.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.4 x 1.55 x 9.55 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,033 in Political Fiction (Books)
- #3,663 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
- #53,671 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.3 out of 5 stars 121 ratings
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