San Francisco Public Library and One City One Book partners are excited to explore and celebrate San Francisco author Tamim Ansary’s memoir with an unparalleled series of book discussions, author events and more.
In West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story, we travel at Ansary’s side, as he gives us rare access to Afghan culture—from the time of “old Afghanistan,” through Soviet rule, and later the Taliban.
After 9/11, Afghanistan once again found itself upon the world’s stage and in direct conflict with the United States—and yet, the country was as obscure to the West as ever. Tamim Ansary, who has lived embedded in both American and Afghan society, is uniquely
capable of reaching across both cultures, and through his experiences he begins to inspire the empathy necessary to transcend differences. His stirring memoir offers much to discuss.
Welcome from Mayor Gavin Newsom
Welcome from City Librarian Luis Herrera
Featured events:
Rebuilding Afghanistan: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Endeavors
Tamim Ansary will moderate this panel discussion about current events in Afghanistan with special guests Mo Qayoumi, president of California State University: East Bay; UC Berkeley professor Wali Ahmadi;
photographer Joseph N. Hoyt; and Humaira Ghilzai, president of Afghan Friends Network.
Wednesday, October 15 at 6:30pm
Koret Auditorium, Main Library,
100 Larkin Street at Grove
(415) 557-4277
Tamim Ansary in Conversation with Oscar Villalon
Join us for a special discussion about the writing life with our One City One Book author and the San Francisco Chronicle Book Editor.
Wednesday, October 22 at 6:30pm
Koret Auditorium, Main Library,
100 Larkin Street at Grove
(415) 557-4277
Complete schedule with more than 20 events, book discussions and related exhibitions
One City One Book Menu:
Connect with One City One Book:
- Discuss West of Kabul, East of New York online at
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- OCOB on MySpace
- OCOB on Facebook
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About the Book:
“Part memoir, part exploration of militant Islam, with a smattering of contemporary Afghan history. The two strands intertwine in poignant passages. His voice [is] both humble and piercing. He writes movingly of a lost world built around family and faith.”
— The Washington Post Book World
“The memoir is an idyllic remembrance of his childhood in Afghanistan, the search for Islam in a journey he took in 1980 through the Muslim world, and an ongoing examination of his identity as an Afghan and American.”
— San Jose Mercury News
The day after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Tamim Ansary sent an anguished e-mail to twenty friends, discussing the attack from his perspective as an Afghan American. The message reached millions. Born to an Afghan father and American mother, Ansary grew up in the intimate world of
Afghan family life and emigrated to San Francisco thinking he’d left Afghan culture behind forever. At the height of the Iranian Revolution, however, he took a harrowing journey through the Islamic world, and in the years that followed, he struggled to unite his divided self and to find
a place in his imagination where his Afghan and American identities might meet.
West of Kabul, East of New York is available at the Library in paperback and audio format.
About the Author:
Tamim Ansary writes and lectures about Afghanistan, Islamic history, democracy, schooling and learning, fiction and the writing process, and other issues as they grab his imagination.
He also directs the San Francisco Writers Workshop, the oldest continuous free writers’ workshop in America and the hub of a growing community of Bay Area writers. He lives in San Francisco and is currently at work on his next book.
 Listen to Tamim Ansary read on
The Writer's Block on KQED.org
Tamim’s profile at Red Room
Tamim Ansary speaks at Tulane University
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One City One Book Sponsors and Partners
Sponsors:
Media Sponsors:
Bookstore Partners:
Program Partners:
- One City One Book 2008 Co-Chairs: Jean Freeman and Sari Swig
- Former One City One Book Chairs: Diane Frankel and Marilyn Waldman
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