A Door in the Earth by Amy Waldman

How many of you remember when every book club in the country was discussing "Three Cups of Tea" and marveling at Greg Mortenson's story of being lost in northern Pakistan while hiking, rescued and nurtured by a nomad tribe, and returning to build a school? After he and his foundation took in billions of dollars that were ultimately misspent and the schools went unfinished or unused, investigations unearthed evidence of a great duping of American philanthropists and us readers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Cups_of_Tea

A similar plot line runs through Amy Waldman's latest novel after the fabulous, controversial 9/11 novel, "The Submission." "A Door in the Earth" is very different from the stark immediacy of "The Submission." It unspools slowly,

drawing you in like a fish on a line, until the fate of the various characters becomes an all-encompassing concern. 

Dr. Gideon Crane's memoir, "Mother Afghanistan," has, like Mortenson's, captured the imagination of American readers everywhere. It too, is a tale of landing in an outlying area of Afghanistan, being taken in by a large Muslim farming family, and then finding himself helpless when his host's wife dies during a difficult childbirth. Returning to the states, Crane creates a foundation that will raise funds for a women's clinic to be built back in the village to honor Fereshta and insure that no more poor, underserved women go without medical care again. 

Recent college graduate Parveen Shamsa is primed to fall under Dr. Crane's charismatic spell. Born in Kabul but raised in Berkeley, California, she has vague dreams of doing great work in anthropology in some far-flung country that would welcome her expertise with open arms. Africa? Brazil? Micronesia? Never, until now, had she even considered her Afghani heritage as anything but a fact to be rebelled against. Now she's determined to follow in Crane's footsteps. She will live with Waheed, Fereshta's husband, and his new wife Bina, study the needs of the village women and help out at the clinic. 

Of course Shamsa is woefully unprepared for the restrictions she faces as an unattached female in a male dominated society, not to mention the depravations of daily living in a  tiny home where six children all sleep in the same room. When she insists on her privacy she is relegated the a dirt-floored goat's pen. Still, as the days and weeks go by and Shamsa gamely insinuates herself into the community, we begin to realize that maybe she's made of sterner stuff than we thought. 

Waldman provides a good deal of backstory about Afghanistan's history, the endless wars, the influence of the Taliban on the smaller villages, and the constant fear of the encroaching American troops. We learn about village politics, small-time corruption, and slowly we come to understand that Crane's iconic book has little basis in reality. Shamsa understands from the doctor who comes once a week to the clinic that there are no paid employees and few supplies, and that the big white building that diminishes even the mosque in scope is just a shallow symbol of American interference and appeasement in a misunderstood country.

Waldman reported from Afghanistan after 9/11 for the New York Times so her fiction has a ring of authenticity to it. Waldman creates a feeling of impending doom even as she describes a village teeming with wise, funny, women and children who witness too much loss, way too soon. She beautifully articulates the complexity involved when one nation attempts to "win hearts and minds" in another and even when the violence comes, as you know that it will, she maintains a nuanced perspective, avoiding the blame game. 

Thanks so much to Jessica Girlando for my autographed copy, picked up at Book Expo last summer in New York. I can't believe it's been sitting unattended on my bookshelf here in Florida but I'm so glad I finally picked it up!