Guardian Weekly

Bookseller of Kabul seeks a new chapter in the UK

He was made famous by international bestseller The Bookseller of Kabul, and survived a succession of repressive regimes in Afghanistan. But two decades later he is living in a Home Office hotel in London, having fled the Taliban to claim asylum.

Shah Muhammad Rais, 69, arrived in the UK last September and claimed asylum at the airport. He

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Guardian Weekly

Guardian Weekly3 min readAmerican Government
Melania Is Back – But She’s Still Not Playing By The Rules
Her biggest fashion statement as first lady was a green jacket emblazoned with the words, “I really don’t care, do u?” More recently Melania Trump has given the impression that she doesn’t care whether her husband, Donald, returns to the White House.
Guardian Weekly3 min read
Lucky Hike
The proximity of the publication of David Nicholls’s sixth novel, You Are Here, to the screening of the superb Netflix remake of One Day gives the new book an added sense of poignancy. If One Day (2009) saw Nicholls as a writer in his mid-40s looking
Guardian Weekly3 min readInternational Relations
Under Fire
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, described the conflict Israel was engaged in as a “multi-front war” this month. Israeli forces were fighting Hamas inside Gaza and engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah on the northern border with

Related Books & Audiobooks