An astonishing writer: this book is another brilliant triumph.’ Nadeem Aslam
Nadeem Aslam

An astonishing writer: this book is another brilliant triumph.’ Nadeem Aslam
Nadeem Aslam

An astonishing writer: this book is another brilliant triumph.’ Nadeem Aslam
Nadeem Aslam

The Patience Stone ... is a deceptively simple book, written in a spare, poetic style. But it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war.It is without doubt an important and courageous book.In this reader’s view, though, this novel’s greatest achievement is in giving voice.Giving voice to those who, as the fable goes, suffer the most and cry out the least.
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Patience Stone ... is a deceptively simple book, written in a spare, poetic style. But it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war.It is without doubt an important and courageous book.In this reader’s view, though, this novel’s greatest achievement is in giving voice.Giving voice to those who, as the fable goes, suffer the most and cry out the least.
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Patience Stone ... is a deceptively simple book, written in a spare, poetic style. But it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war.It is without doubt an important and courageous book.In this reader’s view, though, this novel’s greatest achievement is in giving voice.Giving voice to those who, as the fable goes, suffer the most and cry out the least.
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

An urgent, heavily theatrical work…an important and shocking polemic; it will outrage readers for the truths it reveals
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times

An urgent, heavily theatrical work…an important and shocking polemic; it will outrage readers for the truths it reveals
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times

One thinks of Marguerite Duras, the plays of Sartre, the absurdity of Samuel Beckett, even of Ernest Hemingway. Strangely beautiful, poignant, by turns light and serious... The Patience Stone is one of those rare novels which make time elastic; too short, it can be read in one go, yet it never leaves you.
Lire

We know so little about the day-to-day life of people in Afghanistan – and in particular its women – that glittering gems such as this … become all the more valuable for shining a torch on a beleaguered and largely unseen existence
Metro

We know so little about the day-to-day life of people in Afghanistan – and in particular its women – that glittering gems such as this … become all the more valuable for shining a torch on a beleaguered and largely unseen existence
Metro

One thinks of Marguerite Duras, the plays of Sartre, the absurdity of Samuel Beckett, even of Ernest Hemingway. Strangely beautiful, poignant, by turns light and serious... The Patience Stone is one of those rare novels which make time elastic; too short, it can be read in one go, yet it never leaves you.
Lire

One thinks of Marguerite Duras, the plays of Sartre, the absurdity of Samuel Beckett, even of Ernest Hemingway. Strangely beautiful, poignant, by turns light and serious... The Patience Stone is one of those rare novels which make time elastic; too short, it can be read in one go, yet it never leaves you.
Lire

Rich in symbolism
Charlotte Bailey, Times Literary Supplement

Rich in symbolism
Charlotte Bailey, Times Literary Supplement

This is a remarkable novel, written with a beautiful lucidity… it is a book which achieves what imaginative literature can provide better than any art form: it makes you think and feel at the same time
Allan Massie, Scotsman

This is a remarkable novel, written with a beautiful lucidity… it is a book which achieves what imaginative literature can provide better than any art form: it makes you think and feel at the same time
Allan Massie, Scotsman

We know so little about the day-to-day life of people in Afghanistan – and in particular its women – that glittering gems such as this … become all the more valuable for shining a torch on a beleaguered and largely unseen existence
Metro

We know so little about the day-to-day life of people in Afghanistan – and in particular its women – that glittering gems such as this … become all the more valuable for shining a torch on a beleaguered and largely unseen existence
Metro

Atiq Rahimi’s prose is spare and elegant and sporadically mutates into shards of evocative poetry. Polly McLean’s translation does justice to the original French
Aled Adil, Independent

Atiq Rahimi’s prose is spare and elegant and sporadically mutates into shards of evocative poetry. Polly McLean’s translation does justice to the original French
Aled Adil, Independent

Her monologue is a direct attempt on the part of Rahimi to rip away the veil over Afghan women’s lives... An act of political courage and beautifully constructed, deeply memorable novella.
Observer

Her monologue is a direct attempt on the part of Rahimi to rip away the veil over Afghan women’s lives... An act of political courage and beautifully constructed, deeply memorable novella.
Observer