Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan

“Nawa deftly sketches the geopolitical nightmare that is today’s Afghanistan, but the book’s real strength is her detailed, sensitive reporting of individual people’s stories.” — Boston Globe

An Afghan-American journalist offers a revealing look inside a country torn apart—from corrupt officials to warlords and child brides—while revisiting her own family’s deep roots to the land.

Afghan-American journalist Fariba Nawa delivers a revealing and deeply personal exploration of Afghanistan and the drug trade which rules the country, from corrupt officials to warlords and child brides and beyond. Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns calls Opium Nation “an insightful and informative look at the global challenge of Afghan drug trade. Fariba Nawa weaves her personal story of reconnecting with her homeland after 9/11 with a very engaging narrative that chronicles Afghanistan’s dangerous descent into opium trafficking…and most revealingly, how the drug trade has damaged the lives of ordinary Afghan people.” Readers of Gayle Lemmon Tzemach’s The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and Rory Stewart’s The Places Between will find Nawa’s personal, piercing, journalistic tale to be an indispensable addition to the cultural criticism covering this dire global crisis.

Nawa’s unflinching account reveals the human cost of the global heroin trade:

• A Journalist’s Homecoming: Fariba Nawa returns to the homeland she fled as a child, weaving her personal story of reconnection with a dangerous investigation into the country’s shadows.
• The Opium Brides: Follow the tragic story of Darya, a young girl sold into marriage to a powerful drug lord to settle her father’s opium debt, and other women caught in the crossfire.
• Drug Lords and Warlords: Go inside a shadowy world of corrupt officials, powerful smugglers, and armed commanders who profit from the chaos of war and addiction.
• Geopolitical Insight: Connect the dots from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the global crisis, offering a critical look at a country torn apart by decades of conflict and foreign intervention.