02551cam a2200301 i 4500 567522337 TxAuBib 20220923120000.0 220215s2022||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2021047334 9781644212035 HRD 27.95 164421203X HRD 27.95 TxAuBib rda Garcia, J. Malcolm, 1957-, author. Most dangerous, most unmerciful [BOOK] : Afghanistan stories / J. Malcolm Garcia. First Edition. New York : Seven Stories Press, [2022] 301 pages ; 22 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Weather Did Not Destroy this House -- Old Guns -- Mother's House -- Displaced Persons -- Animal Rescue -- Feral Children -- Grave Digger -- Fire in the Hole -- In Those Days -- Weight of the World -- Most Dangerous, Most Unmerciful -- Sherpur Cemetery --Farmer by Day -- A Mercy Killing -- Book Lady -- Maybe One Day -- All That is Yet to Come. Reporting from Kabul and Kandahar between 2001 and 2015, J. Malcolm Garcia tells us what actually happened to the Afghan people as the conflict between first world nations and fundamentalists raged. In telling the stories of ordinary Afghans, Garcia shows the impact of years of occupation and war—and the sudden and harsh changes as new occupiers push in—on a people and their culture. Garcia meets Laila Haidary—everyone calls her “mother”—who, with no resources to speak of, gives addicts living on the street one month of detoxification and clean living, while at the same time sending her own children to make the perilous journey to Western Europe as best they can. And there is nine-year-old Ghani, who earns a few dollars a day collecting cans on the street to support his two brothers and sister now that his father has died of a brain tumor. There are the translators and fixers Garcia hires, who risk their lives working for foreigners against the warnings of the Taliban, and also the US soldiers who don’t understand what their mission is here, and why they can’t just do what they are trained to do, which is to seek out and kill the enemy. Provided by publisher. 20220923. Afghan War, 2001-2021. Afghanistan Social life and customs 21st century. Afghanistan Social conditions 21st century.