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Saira Shah's stunning new memoir is one of those rare and wonderful books that's hard to classify because it touches the reader in so many different ways. A jewel of many facets -- from high adventure to geopolitics to the wisdom of the ages -- it takes us on a journey of the human spirit as compelling as it is rewarding. The setting of the book is Afghanistan, a country that, despite its recent prominence on the world stage, remains for most of us little known and much misunderstood. Shah opens up Afghanistan for the reader, revealing it to be far more complex and culturally rich than the evening news would lead us to believe; and in so doing, she opens up much, much more. An acclaimed London-based journalist whose powerful television documentary "Beneath the Veil" exposed the horrors of the Taliban to the world just prior to Sept. 11, Shah comes from an accomplished Afghan family of ancient pedigree. Her brother, Tahir Shah, is a celebrated travel writer, and her father, Idries Shah, who died in 1996, was a well-known Sufi philosopher whose 30-plus books have been translated into a dozen languages. But growing up in England, where her family had settled, Saira Shah's main contact with her Afghan heritage was through the stories her father told her and her siblings -- timeless stories of fairytale mountain landscapes peopled by proud and fearless warriors upholding a centuries-old code of honor. THE STORYTELLER'S DAUGHTER is built around her search for her own identity as she attempts to reconcile the romantic Afghanistan of her father's tales with the country's reality after years of devastating civil war. In gripping fashion tempered with gentle humor, it recounts her clandestine forays into Afghanistan with the mujahidin as a fledgling reporter in the mid-1980s, as well as her equally risky trips there in 2001 to film "Beneath the Veil" and its follow-up documentary, "Unholy War." In the process, it sheds considerable light on the conflict that has ravaged that country for decades, as well as on the upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism -- quite alien to Afghanistan's moderate, Sufi-influenced tradition -- that has given rise to al Qaeda. But the book goes far beyond those things in scope and appeal and, like the very best literature, serves as a lens through which the reader can gain a greater self-understanding. Thought-provoking, moving and beautifully written, THE STORYTELLER'S DAUGHTER is, among many other things, a timely reminder that we can rarely fit the world's complexities into the narrow confines of our own preconceived notions and oversimplifications.

Saira Shah continues the tradition of her esteemed family with a compelling and personal travelogue and object lesson that meets the high standards set by her grandfather, grandmother, and father (Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, Morag Murray Abdullah, and Idries Shah). This book is necessary reading for all Americans, considering our relationship with her ancestral homeland of Afghanistan over the last twenty-plus years. Those who seek easy answers, who rely on programmatic belief-structures and simplistic views of the complex phenomena that are human nature and culture... are, as usual, advised to seek elsewhere. The combination of ancient wisdom, colorful people and locales, horrific atrocities, and the hope that is endemic to humanity despite everything... is wonderfully realized here, and will change the reader, much like the characters in a story Ms. Shah presents and from which the title of this review is taken. I believe it remains incorrect to jump to any conclusions about her being placed in some sort of jeopardy or other by her father's ideas; first, because it was her interpretation of those ideas, not the ideas themselves, that led to the jeopardy; second, because her father made it clear that if she grew up she would not need to go; third, because he warned her of a need to compromise or she might get herself killed; fourth, because, given his participation in the struggle against the Soviets, it would have been hypocritical for him to stop his adult daughter doing what she could about the situation; fifth, because her father did not believe in forbidding as a teaching method, and it would have been inconsistent for him to use it in this case. Given the time span and events involved in this narrative, it goes almost without saying that things were omitted; it is unknown, perhaps even to the author, what steps were taken by others, and at whose behest, to minimize the risk of her capture or death. But what is here rings of truth, and is more than sufficient; indeed, it is excellent.

This book is both a series of tales of travel in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as the personal memoir of a young woman in search of the Afghanistan of her father's stories. It is studded with unforgetable characters and situations, a world away from typical western concerns. The writing is excellent. The author is fully engaged intellectually and emotionally, and has the ability to inspire that engagement in her readers as well. Further, anyone with a familiarity with her father Idries Shah's writings will find it of great interest that he left at least one member of his own family struggling to understand his broad claims about the wisdom and nobility of the Afghan people (see his Kara Kush, for instance). His ideas led his daughter, per her own admission, into some terribly dangerous situations during the Afghan conflicts.