You Don’t Say Anything

The author tries to turn the culture and traditions of Afghanistan, considering the country’s civil wars during the periods before and after the Taliban, into the main themes of the stories in this book. Seven out of nine short stories in this book address the wars and the internal situation of Afghanistan, and five stories in the collection focus on the periods before and after the Taliban regime. In part of the story, we read: “There were eight of us who had no legs and could never descend the mountain. We were scared that when descending the mountain, we might roll down and by the time we reached the bottom, nothing would remain of our legless bodies, and we would be scattered amongst the rocks, unable to even expand the cemetery. There were eight of us who had no legs, and the dice’s double-six and double-five made us kings, but when double-four and double-two rolled, we would be dethroned and brought to the ground. The dice became the commander, and in every game we played, whoever didn’t lose would become the king, and the rest of us would obey until someone else rolled a double-six, and the roles would change. There were eight of us, and…”