Kara Kush

By: Idries Shah

Narrated by: David Ault

In December of 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the borders of Afghanistan, beginning a period of barbaric aggression that triggered a turning point in modern history. Idries Shah's brilliant novel chronicles the courageous 10-year resistance of the Afghan people, an epic story of triumph over tyranny that deserves to be immortalized.

Kara Kush is the definitive story of freedom fighters. It is a story of patriotism in action, mobilized and fueled not by a mass-media propaganda machine or the charisma of a single individual, but by a thousands-of-years-old tradition of proud independence, deep love of one's land, and fierce will to survive.

Kara Kush was first published in 1986, at a time when most of the outside world dismissed the Afghan resistance as a ragtag lot of rival guerrilla factions in a futile holdout against an invincible military machine. With extraordinary insight into human nature and the course of human history, Kara Kush told the real story.

According to Shah, almost all of the people in the text of the novel actually exist or did exist. The accounts of battles and raids, precise military details, and the stories of Soviet and red Afghan atrocities were all from primary sources eye witnesses, participants, defectors, victims, and prisoners.

This remarkable audiobook, among all other sources, offers keys to understanding not only this important strategic region, but the very phase in world history in which we find ourselves today. Much more than a novel, even more than a tribute, Kara Kush stands as a model of human vision, leadership, cooperation, and capacity at a time when we need it most.

"I collected this material from freedom fighters, some of them my own relatives, from refugees, and from men and women, fighting shoulder to shoulder, from all over Afghanistan." (Idries Shah)

©1986- ISF Publishing (P)2019 ISF Publishing

A MUST READ

I found this to be a very interesting story, unlike any war story I have ever read. There are many characters in the book and it is difficult at times to keep track of them. “Google Earth” is an amazing tool to look up the location of the places mentioned in the book and get a general idea of the geography. I highly recommend listening. Mr. Idries Shah is an amazing author and I certainly will read more of his books in the future.
The narrator, mr. David Ault is a pleasure to listen to. I did up the speed a notch, 1.25, but that can be my personal preference.
My thanks to all involved, JK.