Table Of Content— The Widow’s Husband —
Advance Praise for
The Widow’s Husband
Novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid
Suns, says, “Tamim Ansary’s book is a lavishly detailed and unfailingly
engrossing story of loyalty, custom, honor, and love… There isn’t a false note in
this account of the doomed British campaign in Afghanistan and the intertwined
lives that unravel, in unexpected ways, as civilizations collide. This is historical
fiction at its page-turning best…”
Playwright Charlie Varon, author of The People’s Violin and Rush Limbaugh in
Night School, says this book, “…kept me up later than I'd planned, I had to finish
it! A fascinating immersion into 19th century Afghanistan, its village life and its
invaders. It will change the way you think about this part of the world...”
Novelist Erika Mailman, author of The Witch’s Trinity and A Woman of Ill Fame
says, "This book is an incandescent lamp I will return to again and again, to bask
in the marvelous language and the unforgettable characters… a beautiful and
moving work of fiction. Ansary proves himself an extraordinary novelist…”
The Widow’s
Husband
by
TAMIM ANSARY
The Widow's Husband
Copyright © 2009 by Tamim Ansary
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means, including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the
Publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
This novel is entirely a product of the author’s imagination. All characters, events, and places in it are
fictitious or are fictionally re-imagined historical events and persons. Any similarity to real persons, living
or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ansary, Mir Tamim.
The widow's husband / Tamim Ansary. — 1st print ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9753615-0-4
ISBN-10: 0-9753615-5-4
1. British—Afghanistan—Fiction. 2. Afghan Wars—Fiction. 3. Villages—Afghanistan—Fiction. 4.
Kabul (Afghanistan)—Fiction. 5. Afghanistan—History—19th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3601.N5553W53 2009
813'.6—dc22
2009032695
A Vox Novus Book
Published by NUMINA PRESS
www.numinapress.com
Cover art and design © 2009 by Elina Ansary.
An e-book edition of The Widow's Husband is available on www.scribd.com
Printed in U.S.A.
Every writer should have a writers’ group like mine, the San Francisco
Writers’ Workshop, in all its protean diversity, unending flux, and unfailing
support. I also wish to thank the San Francisco Arts Commission for a grant
that gave me the time to set other cares aside for a year and write this novel.
Historical Note
In 1839, Great Britain sent an army into Afghanistan to replace the
country’s ruler with a more compliant king. The “Army of the Indus”
completed its assignment easily. Soon wives and retainers followed
husbands and lovers and a vigorous British community began to thrive in
Kabul. Three years later, that entire community tried to flee the country
over the Hindu Kush mountains; but out of 17,000 men, women, and
children who left the city on a stormy January day, only one man made it
out of the country alive.
The Widow’s
Husband
TAMIM ANSARY
Copyright © by Tamim Ansary.
This novel is entirely a product of the author’s imagination. All characters,
events, and places in it are fictitious or are fictionally re-imagined historical
events and persons. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is
coincidental and not intended by the author.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this novel or any
portions of it in any form whatsoever except for brief quotations embedded
in critical articles and reviews. For information address Tamim Ansary, 178
Gates Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.
Cover art by Elina Ansary.
Every writer should have a writers’ group like mine, the San Francisco
Writers’ Workshop, in all its protean diversity, unending flux, and unfailing
support. I also wish to thank the San Francisco Arts Commission for a grant
that gave me the time to set other cares aside for a year and write this novel.
Historical Note
In 1839, Great Britain sent an army into Afghanistan to replace the
country’s ruler with a more compliant king. The “Army of the Indus”
completed its assignment easily. Soon wives and retainers followed
husbands and lovers and a vigorous British community began to thrive in
Kabul. Three years later, that entire community tried to flee the country
over the Hindu Kush mountains; but out of 17,000 men, women, and
children who left the city on a stormy January day, only one man made it
out of the country alive.
