SIkander edition by M Salahuddin Khan Akbar Ahmed Literature Fiction eBooks
Download As PDF : SIkander edition by M Salahuddin Khan Akbar Ahmed Literature Fiction eBooks 
Winner of the Grand Prizes in each of the 2010 Los Angeles Book Festival and the 2011 Paris Book Festival, SIKANDER is the tale of the son of a Pakistani middle-class family. It's 1986. Seventeen-year-old Sikander, dreams of studying and living in America, but after a family quarrel, he leaves his Peshawar, Pakistan home. Encountering mujahideen warriors, he joins them in their fight against the occupying Soviets in neighboring Afghanistan. American assistance is stepped up with advanced weapons, like the Stinger missile, and the mujahideen are able to neutralize the Soviet military advantage. After just two years following Sikander's arrival, a Soviet withdrawal begins. Amid the turmoil, Sikander finds love and marries a young, sharp-witted Afghan village girl. With the fighting all but over, the couple decide to move to Sikander's Pakistan home where he hopes to reconcile with his family. But his dream of living in America endures. It's a dream that is shattered in the aftermath of 9/11 and in seeking to help his Afghan relatives, Sikander, now a successful entrepreneur, finds himself on an unavoidable collision course with the America of his dreams.
SIKANDER takes us from the pricey suburbs of Peshawar to the primitive war-torn landscape of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, to the placid serenity of Scotland, through the camps of Guantanamo, and finally, corporate America. It is a 21 year journey through freedom and captivity, love and loss, wealth and poverty, dignity and humiliation, and transgression and redemption. A rare glimpse of a non-radical mainstream Muslim's experience of the West, SIKANDER is a journey of growth, self-discovery, and hope. It will touch the humanity of its readers. Along with the two Grand Prizes, SIKANDER has collected numerous other awards including Best Fiction in the Hollywood Book Festival and the Beach Book Festival and Best Multicultural Fiction in the National Indie Excellence Book Awards for 2011.
SIkander edition by M Salahuddin Khan Akbar Ahmed Literature Fiction eBooks
This monster of a lengthy book, coupled with the novelty of language and culture from Afghanistan and Pakistan, ensured that I took close to a week to finish this finding time from daily life. I was not sure what to expect from an unknown Pakistani author, and I purchased this book experimentally. I am glad I did. The story spans a period of about 30 years or so in the life of an upper middle class teenager from Pakistan. If there was ever a masterful, epic narrative describing how eventful someone's life can be, it is this. The story begins from a regular day in the life of a high-school student, and traverses a horizon that is too awesome to grasp. From a confused teenager, to a soldier young-adult, to a respectful and intelligent young man always ready to tackle responsibilities and liabilities of life, to a wrongfully and misunderstood tortured prisoner, only to ultimately still emerge as the epitome of humanity, Sikander's life is exemplary.Apart from the apparent poignancy of this touching story, the author has wonderfully entwined historical facts into this fiction. In fact, as a reader I was provided with a refresher-course of the 1980s mujhaideen offensive against Soviet Union's "mis-adventure" in Afghanistan, and then the later emergence of the so called "Islamic" terrorism finding its roots from aL Qaeda, about Taliban, Kuwait and Iraq, and finally the first decade of the 2000s that saw America's "shock and awe" approach to "smoke them out" in a post 9/11 world, this novel covers all of that without being stale, boring or dated. If anything, it was hugely interesting, vastly entertaining and a brilliant work of fiction-thriller-adventure! In doing so, the author manages to reasonably stay clear of making any political comments, which given the extremely sensitive background is commendable.
The pace of the novel is extremely fast, with days, weeks and months flying-by. The only disconcerting issue, if I could be audacious enough to point, with this novel is that many a times "scenes" shift abruptly. In one para we are reading about something, and in the next the scene/setting suddenly changes. I think it is something that can be achieved with editing. The chapters towards the end of the novel have sufficient paragraph separaters (which in this novel is a small symbol); similar proofing and editing in the first half will only make the narration "tauter". Finally, I can mention that the language is more 'American English' than UK or sub-continent English, clearly because of the author's residency in the US over the years.
I will remember this story for a long time to come!
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SIkander edition by M Salahuddin Khan Akbar Ahmed Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
It's been more than twenty years since I last read a work of fiction and it was with some trepidation that I started "Sikander". It turned out to be one of the best stories I've ever read. It's an amazing journey of a young person born and raised in Pakistan, who witnessed first-hand the tragedies that befell the region starting with the Soviet occupation and leading to more than a decade of US occupation. Mr.Salahuddin Khan is a master story teller. His descriptions of the locales are so vivid, I can see them in the eye of my mind and recognize them if I ever visit the place, assuming it is real! The feature that impressed me most was the way the characters humanize the "enemy" as seen from the West. With a unique style that I've learned to admire, the author delivers the message without hectoring. There is chaste humor sprinkled throughout the text that makes it charming and the culture that is described alluring. Some situations do ask for the reader's indulgence to make the resulting message worthwhile. This book is strongly recommended for folks who are tired of one-sided narratives that have flooded western literature on this topic.
I enjoyed reading this book, despite it's obvious flaws. Yes, it does present a very sympathetic view of the Muslim characters (Pakistani and Afghan). But why not? They are the focus of the book. The author was in no way saying ALL are like this.
I liked the story although I have to admit, the author was almost too kind to Skiander and his family. I would like to have seen some character flaws in him, just to make him more realistic. He was a little too perfect to be believable. Yet I did like him. His story was interesting.
Even the fighting in Afghan seemed somehow subdued. There were little battles and conflicts, but the characters just kept on moving as in a bubble.
Sometimes I got a little bored with all the directions in and around and over the mountains. But I just took that the point was how tedious their travel was.
I got the 4th edition ( edition), which had hyper-links to the glossary. A great feature!!! The Touch is not as responsive as I would like, and this was somewhat a distraction, yet it was worth the distraction to have easy access to the Glossary, which I have never seen in a book before. I hope to see this feature more!
The Gitmo treatment sounded very much like accounts I have read of treatment by North Viet Nam to our POWs. So I did find it believable. But at least the author did not characterize the "bad guys" as typical of Americans in general.
The ending really took me by surprise and made the story much better! At last, as real emotional conflict, and made me jump up in my seat. That had been lacking in all the other conflicts. They were just told in too mild a manner. But the last 15% of the book--Wow!
Interesting book showing a view from the other side in the Afghan conflict. Despite the author making many valid points it also shows how deeply ingrained the believes and behaviours are in these tribal areas. Western efforts to impose "democracy" and enlightenment are doomed to fail and the Pashtuns and similar tribes have to find their own way to develop and integrate slowly in a world culture. It reinforces the view that Islam is not only a religion but a complete way of living and subject to various interpretations. Similar to the way Christians used to live in Medieval Europe. The more liberal middle class Pashtuns from Pakistan are described in this book as moderate and the differences with the ones from Afghanistan are well illustrated. Overall worth reading for people who like to read a good story and with interest in cultural anthropology.
This monster of a lengthy book, coupled with the novelty of language and culture from Afghanistan and Pakistan, ensured that I took close to a week to finish this finding time from daily life. I was not sure what to expect from an unknown Pakistani author, and I purchased this book experimentally. I am glad I did. The story spans a period of about 30 years or so in the life of an upper middle class teenager from Pakistan. If there was ever a masterful, epic narrative describing how eventful someone's life can be, it is this. The story begins from a regular day in the life of a high-school student, and traverses a horizon that is too awesome to grasp. From a confused teenager, to a soldier young-adult, to a respectful and intelligent young man always ready to tackle responsibilities and liabilities of life, to a wrongfully and misunderstood tortured prisoner, only to ultimately still emerge as the epitome of humanity, Sikander's life is exemplary.
Apart from the apparent poignancy of this touching story, the author has wonderfully entwined historical facts into this fiction. In fact, as a reader I was provided with a refresher-course of the 1980s mujhaideen offensive against Soviet Union's "mis-adventure" in Afghanistan, and then the later emergence of the so called "Islamic" terrorism finding its roots from aL Qaeda, about Taliban, Kuwait and Iraq, and finally the first decade of the 2000s that saw America's "shock and awe" approach to "smoke them out" in a post 9/11 world, this novel covers all of that without being stale, boring or dated. If anything, it was hugely interesting, vastly entertaining and a brilliant work of fiction-thriller-adventure! In doing so, the author manages to reasonably stay clear of making any political comments, which given the extremely sensitive background is commendable.
The pace of the novel is extremely fast, with days, weeks and months flying-by. The only disconcerting issue, if I could be audacious enough to point, with this novel is that many a times "scenes" shift abruptly. In one para we are reading about something, and in the next the scene/setting suddenly changes. I think it is something that can be achieved with editing. The chapters towards the end of the novel have sufficient paragraph separaters (which in this novel is a small symbol); similar proofing and editing in the first half will only make the narration "tauter". Finally, I can mention that the language is more 'American English' than UK or sub-continent English, clearly because of the author's residency in the US over the years.
I will remember this story for a long time to come!
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