Earth and Ashes - Atiq Rahimi [18]
—RYAN CROCKER, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and Iraq, and U.S. envoy to Afghanistan
“The Patience Stone is perfectly written: spare, close to the bone, sometimes bloody, with a constant echo, like a single mistake that repeats itself over and over and over.”
—Los Angeles Times
“This story from an Afghan-born author is a powerful one, giving voice to the historically downtrodden Afghan woman … truly an expansive work of literature.”
—New York Post
“[A] clever novel … readers get a glimpse of daily life in a country terrorized by conflict and religious fundamentalism. Rahimi paints this picture with nuance and subtlety … [His] sparse prose complements his simple yet powerful storytelling prowess. This unique story is both enthralling and disturbing.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
Born in Kabul in 1962, ATIQ RAHIMI was seventeen years old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He fled to Pakistan during the war and was eventually granted political asylum in France in 1984. He later enrolled at the Sorbonne and received a doctorate in audio-visual communications. After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Rahimi returned to Afghanistan, where he filmed an adaptation of Earth and Ashes. There he has become renowned as a maker of documentary and feature films, and as a writer. The film of Earth and Ashes was in the Official Selection at Cannes in 2004 and won a number of prizes. Since 2002 Rahimi has returned to Afghanistan a number of times to set up a Writers’ House in Kabul and offer support and training to young writers and filmmakers. His novel The Patience Stone (Other Press) won the Prix Goncourt in 2008.
Other Press edition 2010
Translation copyright © 2002 Erdağ M. Göknar
Copyright © 2000 P.O.L éditeur
First published in Dari (Afghanistan) in 1999 by Éditions Khavaran, France, under the title Khâkestar-o-khâk
First published in English in 2002 by Chatto & Windus, Great Britain
Production Editor: Yvonne E. Cárdenas
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write to Other Press LLC, 2 Park Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Or visit our Web site: www.otherpress.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Rahimi, Atiq.
[Khakistar va khak. English]
Earth and ashes / by Atiq Rahimi; translated from the Dari (Afghanistan) by Erdag M. Göknar.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-59051-392-7
1. Fathers and sons—Fiction. 2. Afghanistan—History—Soviet occupation,
1979–1989—Fiction. I. Göknar, Erdag M. II. Title.
PK6878.9.R34K4513 2010
891′.563—dc22
2010020384
v3.0