The Broken Circle

Enjeela Ahmadi was a child in Kabul in the years before 1980, when the city still felt calm and prosperous and drew residents from every background. Political tension was rising, and when her mother left the country for medical care in India, the fighting grew worse. The Soviet army's arrival brought tanks into the streets and left the family frightened and uncertain about whether their mother would return.

What began as a wait became a five-year odyssey. Enjeela, her siblings and their father set out across a war-torn Afghanistan, determined to reach their mother. Along the way they faced constant peril, and Enjeela looks back on the rugged landscape of her homeland as she tries to hold onto hope and inner strength.

This memoir is told from the viewpoint of a young girl who lived through the brutality of war and found the resolve to survive it. Its central idea is that a family is held together by affection and loyalty, not by the borders that divide nations.