A Thousand Golden Cities

In the Western mind, Afghanistan has come to mean many things in recent decades, most of them bad. Partly thanks to the relentless media coverage of the 'War on Terror', it has become synonymous above all with war & terrorism & crushing levels of poverty & immiseration. This is an extraordinarily reductive & one-dimensional portrait of a nation. Afghanistan is, & always has been, vastly more interesting than that. Its long & tumultuous history at the centre of the world, at the heart of cultural exchanges between East & West, encompasses high culture, low politics, domestic dynasties, international adventures, great power rivalry & a completely compelling vein of skulduggery. This anthology will celebrate this rich, engrossing heritage with a captivating blend of history & geography, religion & culture, politics & poetry, drama & memoir, home-grown fiction & the self-serving literature of invaders.