If you are interested in Afghanistan or work with Afghan people and like books for a good chat over tea (uitstapje naar mijn boekblog)

When you stop your car at a truckstop so you can read a bit more a book is really interesting!


I am NOT going to tell too much of the story as
essential in that story is the past getting revealed bit by bit.


At the beginning of the novel we meet Scottish Miriam married to a doctor in rural Afghanistan. He is her second husband and things are less happy than they seemed at first. Bit by bit we get to know her history and that of her husband.


It is clear the writer knows - later I discovered she indeed has firsthand experience- Afghanistan.


As I met people from Afghanistan in the 90ties when I worked with refugees I was really interested in the cultural background of the story. But the author is ablessed storyteller as well. Miriam really seems real. And you hope nothing bad will happen to her. The mentioning of Dumfries made me smile. Not many people around where I live will know that small Scottish town but I have a friend who lives there and I guess she might even know the writer.


AMAZON writes: "Scottish-born midwife, Miriam loves her work at a health clinic in rural
Afghanistan and the warmth and humour of her women friends in the
village, but she can no longer ignore the cracks appearing in her
marriage. Her doctor husband has changed from the loving, easy-going man
she married and she fears he regrets taking on a widow with a young
son, who seems determined to remain distant from his stepfather."




Someone else wrote a review on Amazon stating: (and I agree)

" ByKindle Customer49on July 15, 2016

At first, what struck me most about this highly descriptive, lyrically
written, “No More Mulberries,” was the author’s ability to completely
transport me back to the faraway country of 1990s Afghanistan, not only
geographically, but also culturally, and ideologically. It’s a country
where ‘saving face’ is the order of the day, where its population is
rapidly falling victim to the Taliban, and where primitive beliefs are
so pervasive, that a child with leprosy is almost drowned by his father,
in order to ‘kill’ the disease. In addition, Smith shows us––through
the eyes of the ‘outsider’ widow Miriam from Scotland, her second
Afghani husband, and their children––that there’s another side to this
land; how the people are so gracious and hospitable that offering one’s
home and food to strangers is a given, and not accepting a dinner
invitation is tantamount to receiving a slap in the face.


But  ultimately, what held me captive was the slow, unwinding mystery being
played out of how Miriam’s first husband died, and what brought her to
her second husband. Although the clash of cultures is often painful,
confusing, and palpable, Smith confirms that in the end, no matter where
we’re from, no matter the hardships in where we’ve landed, if we are
truly willing to be honest with ourselves, the rest will undoubtedly
fall into place. Definitely recommend!"


Here for sale at AMAZON: http://amzn.to/2wprF32


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It is not the only book the author wrote. She also wrote her memoirs from the time she worked in Afghanistan and how she kept in touch with her friends there afterwards.
That book is called:

Drunk Chickens and Burnt Macaroni

Drunk Chickens and Burn Macaroni (subtitle) offers a remarkable insight into the lives of Afghan women both before and after Taliban’s rise to power. The reader is caught up in the day-to-day lives of women like Sharifa, Latifa and Marzia, sharing their problems, dramas, the tears and the laughter: whether enjoying a good gossip over tea and fresh nan, dealing with a husband’s desertion, battling to save the life of a one-year-old opium addict or learning how to deliver babies safely. It is for sale here: http://amzn.to/2wU91Um