Illiteracy & the Women of Afghanistan

I’ve been waiting for the right moment to release this video interview of Susan Froetschel and boy did that moment come.  Susan’s latest book, Fear of Beauty, has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Mary Higgins Clark Award!  It’s so well-deserved, too.

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Susan’s books are full of current issues and vibrant people whose struggles and passion for life and justice keep you turning pages.  Her background as a journalist mixes with her literary talent to bring factual stories that both break your heart and exemplify the ability of people to endure and succeed in the direst circumstances.

The battered body of an Afghan boy is found at the base of a cliff outside a remote village in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Did he fall as most of the villagers think? Or is this the work of American soldiers, as others want to believe? Not far from the village, the U.S. Army has set up a training outpost. Sofi, the boy’s illiterate young mother, is desperate to find the truth about her son’s death. But extremists move in and offer to roust the “infidels” from the region, adding new pressures and restrictions for the small village and its women. We hear two sides of this story. One is Sofi’s. The other is that of U.S. Army Special Ranger Joey Pearson, who is in this faraway place to escape a rough childhood and rigidly fundamentalist parents. In time, and defying all odds, Sofi secretly learns to read-with the help of Mita Samuelson, an American aid worker. Through reading, the Afghan woman develops her own interpretation of how to live the good life while discovering the identity of her son’s murderer and the extremists’ real purpose in her village. As they search for answers, Sofi, Joey, and Mita come to the same realization: in each of their separate cultures the urge to preserve a way of life can lead to a fundamentalism that destroys a society’s basic values.

About Diana Belchase

Golden Heart winner, and triple Daphne du Maurier finalist, Diana Belchase lives in Montgomery County just outside of Washington, D.C. Diana loves to travel and puts the places she’s visited into her books. Her current novels are set in Hong Kong, New York, Washington, DC, Paris, and that most exotic of all locales … the Maryland Ag Reserve. Join Diana at On My Mind for a look into life in Maryland as well as print and video interviews with bestselling and upcoming authors. Remember, Diana would like to know what's on your mind, too! She can be reached through her personal website at www.DianaBelchase.com..

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