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Title details for The Taliban Shuffle by Kim Barker - Available

The Taliban Shuffle

Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan

by Kim Barker
Kirsten Potter
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Now a Major Motion Picture titled Whiskey Tango Foxtrot starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton.

From tea with warlords in the countryside to parties with drunken foreign correspondents in the “dry” city of Kabul, journalist Kim Barker captures the humor and heartbreak of life in post-9/11 Afghanistan and Pakistan in this profound and darkly comic memoir. As Barker grows from awkward newbie to seasoned reporter, she offers an insider’s account of the region’s “forgotten war” at a time when all eyes were turned to Iraq. Candid, self-deprecating, and laugh-out-loud funny, Barker shares both her affection for the absurdities of these two hapless countries and her fear for their future stability.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 22, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307881168
      • File size: 285165 KB
      • Duration: 09:54:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Barker offers an insider's account of the "forgotten war" in Afghanistan and Pakistan as she chronicles the years after the initial routing of the Taliban by the U.S. Narrator Kirsten Potter captures the author's sarcastic tone perfectly in this candid and darkly comic account of Barker's experience as the South Asia bureau chief for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE from 2004 to 2009. Barker is candid, self-deprecating, and hilarious as she details her arrival in Afghanistan as an awkward newcomer. There she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about the ability of the West to win hearts and minds in the region. Swift, funny, and wholly original, Barker's account unforgettably captures the absurdities and tragedies of life in a war zone. B.C.E. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 29, 2010
      Barker, a journalist for ProPublica, offers a candid and darkly comic account of her eight years as an international correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in Afghanistan and Pakistan, beginning shortly after September 11. With self-deprecation and a keen eye for the absurd, Barker describes her evolution from a green, fill-in correspondent to an adrenaline junkie who gets hit on by Nawaz Sharif, former Pakistani prime minister, and becomes adept in "how to find money in a war zone, how to flatter a warlord, how to cover a suicide bombing, how to jump-start a car using a cord and a metal ladder." Barker reveals how profoundly the U.S. continues to get Afghanistan wrong—that American personnel in the country live in a bubble, rarely dealing with Afghans, that they trample on local customs by getting routinely and "staggeringly" drunk despite Islam's prohibition of alcohol, and throw offensive costume parties at the Department for International Development (DFID). In equal measure, Barker elucidates the deep political ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S.'s role in today's "whiplash between secularism and extremism," and blasts Pakistan's leaders for destroying their nation through endless coups and power jockeying.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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