99 Nights in Logar

By: Jamil Jan Kochai

Narrated by: Ali Nasser

Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Novel

“Funny, razor-sharp, and full of juicy tales that feel urgent and illicit...the author has created a singular, resonant voice, an American teenager raised by Old World Afghan storytellers.” (New York Times Book Review)

A dog on the loose. A boy yearning to connect to his family's roots. A country in the midst of great change. And a vibrant exploration of the power of stories—the ones we tell each other and the ones we find ourselves in.

Twelve-year-old Marwand's memories from his previous visit to Afghanistan six years ago center on his contentious relationship with Budabash, the terrifying but beloved dog who guards his extended family's compound in the rural village of Logar. But eager for an ally in this place that is meant to be "home", Marwand misreads his reunion with the dog and approaches Budabash the way he would any pet on his American suburban block—and the results are disastrous: Marwand loses a finger, and Budabash escapes into the night.

Marwand is not chastened and doubles down on his desire to fit in here. He must get the dog back, and the resulting search is a gripping and vivid adventure story, a lyrical, funny, and surprisingly tender coming-of-age journey across contemporary Afghanistan that blends the bravado and vulnerability of a boy's teenage years with an homage to familial oral tradition and calls to mind One Thousand and One Nights yet speaks with a voice all its own.

©2019 Jamil Jan Kochai (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A Southern Living Best New Book Coming Out Winter 2019

A TIME Best New Book to Read in January 2019

A Buzzfeed Book Coming In 2019 That You'll Want To Keep On Your Radar

A Vulture Best New Book You Should Read This January

Shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

“99 Nights in Logar is crafted with care, respect and a hard-earned and profound understanding of its readership. It is funny, razor-sharp and full of juicy tales that feel urgent and illicit, turning the reader into a lucky, trilingual fly on the wall in a family loaded with secrets and prone to acquiring more. . . . The ensuing adventure is witty and engaging, somewhat allegorical, thrumming with histories of foreign wars and with memories of lives lost and childhoods cut short. . . . The author has created a singular, resonant voice, an American teenager raised by Old World Afghan storytellers. . . . Kochai has created an exciting and true voice.”—New York Times Book Review

“A funny, lightly surreal evocation of life in rural Afghanistan . . . driven by a profusion of tales within tales, which begin and break off, resume and recur, swerve or blossom into one another. . . . The magical elements don’t seem so much more far-fetched than the drones in the sky, and the book’s comic register turns out to be wildly elastic . . . help[ing to] restore a sense of the weight and substance of individual Afghan lives for readers so inured to the large numbers of reported deaths over many years.”—Harper's Magazine

“Kochai weaves together a tapestry of stories to present a captivating image of the country that has been called ‘the graveyard of empires.’ . . . [He] maintains a playful humor in Marwand’s voice, channeling something like One Thousand and One Nights meets The Sandlot, and we feel as if we are watching the coming-of-age of a real boy. . . . A bulwark against exoticism that reminds us that if we can treat stories with respect, we have a better chance of respecting the lives those stories serve.”—TIME

Great story and great narration

I experienced this novel like a story of more and more stories, and I loved each one. A combination of the story and narration gave me nostalgia for a reality I have not come close to actually having. Marwand’s character captures the boredom and intensity of what can unfold in an adolescent’s summer vacation. I didn’t have to be Afghan to feel the awkward moments when relationships weren’t going well or relate to his experiences with the dog. I really appreciate getting a glimpse of oral tradition in Afghanistan.

If you don’t speak the language or know the culture it’s hard to follow!

Too hard to follow references to things in another language without background or explanations or further references to meaning. Could not finish book. Just not enough background on culture. If you lived in his country you would better understand what he is talking about in the book. Otherwise so much is just not clear.