title: Searching for Saleem: An Afghan Woman's Odyssey
author:  Farooka Gauhari 
description: Now that the forces of the fundamentalist Taliban has taken over Kabul and its restrictions, particularly of women, are making news in the West, there will no doubt be interest in Searching for Saleem, one woman's memoirs of a life inAfghanistan. Unfortunately, Gauhari, formerly an associate professor of science at Kabul University and currently a member of the biology department at the University of Nebraska, is a poor writer who would have been better off letting another write her story. Her opening chapter, "A Happy Childhood," is followed by nearly embarrassing descriptions of her future husband and her feelings for him: "My heart pounded; my face blushed; I had warm feeling all over my body that were unfamiliar to me." After they married, Saleem disappeared on April 27, 1978, during the Soviet-backed Communist takeover. The bulk of the book is a diaristic description of her search for her missing husband as Afghanistan falls apart around her. But the real horror of the day-to-day struggle never comes to life, as Gauhari opts instead for vague pronouncements like "I dearly missed the good old times, before the bloody coup of April 1978."
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  ![](index-1_1.jpg)
  
  
  SWEPT AWAY
  
  
  A Krinar Story
  
  
  ANNA ZAIRES
  
  
  [♠ Mozaika Publications ♠](http://www.mozaikallc.com)
  
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,
  events, or locales is purely coincidental.
  
  
  _Copyright_ © 2015 _Anna Zaires and Dima Zales_
  
  
  [www.annazaires.com](http://www.annazaires.com)
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  Except for use in a review, no part of this book may be reproduced, scanned,
  or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
  
  
  Published by Mozaika Publications, an imprint of Mozaika LLC.
  
  
  [www.mozaikallc.com](http://www.mozaikallc.com)
  
  
  Cover by Najla Qamber Designs
  
  
  [www.najlaqamberdesigns.com](http://www.najlaqamberdesigns.com)
  
  
  Edited by Mella Baxter
  
  
  e-ISBN: 978-1-63142-129-7
  
  
  Print ISBN: 978-1-63142-130-3
  
  
  CHAPTER ONE
  
  
  Greece, T