LibGuides: War Literature & Perspectives: Afghanistan War

About The War

The War in Afghanistan was a global conflict that lasted from 2001 to 2021. The war began in response to the deadly 9/11 attacks in New York City. An international military coalition led by the US invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, which currently ruled Afghanistan and protected al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for 9/11. This war, in addition to the Iraq War, was part of the "War on Terror", a global military campaign dedicated to defeating all terrorist groups. The Afghanistan War ended in 2021 when the Islamic Republic was overthrown and re-established as the Islamic Emirate. Around 200,000 people were killed, including 45,000 civilians. Millions of Afghans were displaced or forced to become refugees.

The U.S. War in Afghanistan (1999-2001) | CFR
A timeline of the events of the US-Afghan War.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: PS 3608 .O832 K58 2007
ISBN: 9781594489501
Publication Date: 2007-05-22
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
ISBN: 9780156034029
Publication Date: 2008-04-14
At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. He begins to tell the story of a man named Changez, who is living an immigrant's dream of America. But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his relationships shifting. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.
* This book is available at East Hartford Public Library (linked below)
The Blind Man's Garden by Nadeem Aslam
ISBN: 9780345802859
Publication Date: 2014-01-28
Growing up as brothers in a small town in Pakistan, Jeo and Mikal were inseparable; however as adults their paths have diverged sharply. Jeo is newly married and a dedicated medical student, while Mikal, in love with a woman he can't have, has adopted the life of a vagabond. Nonetheless, when Jeo decides to slip across the border into Afghanistan to help civilians caught in the post-9/11 clash between American and Taliban forces, Mikal goes with him. But their good intentions cannot keep them out of harm's way.
* This book is available at East Hartford Public Library (linked below)

East Hartford Public Library

Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer
Call Number: GV939.T49 | K73 2010
ISBN: 9780307386045
Publication Date: 2010-07-27
Pat Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract in May 2002 to enlist in the United States Army. Deeply troubled by 9/11, he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in Afghanistan. Though obvious to most on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman's family and the American public for five weeks following his death, while President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his administration's foreign policy. Biographer Krakauer draws on his journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research in Afghanistan to render this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Call Number: PS3611.L4423 | A6 2014
ISBN: 9781594204999
Publication Date: 2014-03-04
A soldier who had to shoot dogs because they were eating human corpses must learn what it is like to return to domestic life in suburbia. A Lance Corporal seeks expiation for a killing he didn't commit so his best friend will be unburdened. A Morturary Affairs Marine tells about his experiences collecting remains of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers both. A chaplain sees his understanding of Christianity, and his ability to provide solace through religion, tested by the actions of a ferocious Colonel. A young Foreign Service Officer is given the absurd task of helping Iraqis improve their lives by teaching them to play baseball. These stories reveal the intricate combination of monotony, bureaucracy, comradeship and violence that make up a soldier's daily life at war, and the isolation, remorse, and despair that can accompany a soldier's homecoming.
* This book is available in the Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin University
A Refugee's Journey from Afghanistan by Helen Mason
ISBN: 9780778731252
Publication Date: 2017-02-01
Sonita was born in a refugee camp in Pakistan after her family fled Afghanistan during the war in the early 2000s. Unwelcome in Pakistan, her family returns to Afghanistan, where Sonita and her family face new challenges. Interspersed with facts about Afghanistan and its people, this narrative tells a story common to many refugees fleeing the country.
* This book is available at Russell Library of Middletown (linked below)

Russell Library of Middletown