The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

This novel was easy read and follows on quite well from our previous book of the Infidel.

This is basically a story about the lives of Afghan women as seen through the eyes of an American woman Sunny who owns a coffee shop in Kabul.  The most compelling story is that of Yasmina, who was taken in by Sunny whilst pregnant with child from her dead husband and who is desperate to save her younger sister from a fate of being sold off to settle her uncle's debts, just like herself.

Deborah Rodriquez paints a good picture of love and friendship in a wartorn city.  But as the novel progresses, it starts to resemble a Mills & Boon story as Deborah proceeds to tie up all the loose ends too nicely. We found the change in Ahmet, Halaya's son, who was very traditional in the novel, extraordinary and hard to believe--not only does he become a loving husband for Yasmina and father to her child, he even accepts his mother's old love as her new husband!

Our group found that Sunny's character was a bit too contrived and wonder why is she in Kabul anyways?
Isabel's journey into the heartland of the Taliban in search of a mother and child was also unbelievable.
The character of Halajan was quite inspiring as she understands the dilemma of her son and doesn't condemn him.

We rate this novel 6.75 out of 10.

Our next meeting is on April 11th and Patricia will be sending out the venue details.
The book we will be discussing is A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

I believe that Meredith has chosen her book : The Dinner by Herman Koch but I'll confirm that at the next meeting too.