The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul had previously been published under the title A Cup of Friendship. The Little Coffee Shop was the first book I read by Deborah Rodriguez. It claims that it is fiction, and probably so, as some of the stories seem a bit unrealistic. But then truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.  

The book is set in modern day Kabul, in a coffee shop run by an American woman called Sunny, who is dating some kind of secret agent (the handsome kind named Jack) who keeps mysteriously disappearing on dangerous missions. Sunny spends her time rescuing Afghan women who are in perilous situations, driving her broken down Mercedes through the local markets and organising Christmas, complete with tree, lights, gifts and American style Christmas dinner at her coffee shop. 

I quite liked the book, it’s an easy read, with a dramatic opening chapter, the sprinkling of Arabic words (quite effective) throughout the book and the requisite opium dealers; in fact, it includes all the elements of a Taliban soap opera. More importantly, it did highlight the lives of women in Afghanistan and how much or how little has changed for them post-Taliban. 

 
The author’s bio intrigued me as she was in Afghanistan in 2002 as part of an NGO called Care For All Foundation, where she then went on to get involved with starting up a beauty school in Kabul (How cool is that!) all  which she wrote about in her previous book, The Kabul Beauty School: The Art of Friendship and Freedom. Of course I had to read it. 

 
This book seems to have stirred up quite a bit of controversies when it was published in 2007. According to the New York Times, the book, published as a memoir, was not exactly accurate. 


On its release, Afghan women came forward and accused Deborah of not keeping the promises she made for compensation in return for their stories, that she was in it for personal gain, that she never founded or owned the beauty school and that as a result their lives were being threatened. 

Deborah stuck by her story and defended the book, ‘I wanted the book to be about the women, not about me,” she said. “I’m just the voice.”  There was talk of a deal being signed with Colombia pictures for the movie rights and Deborah promised that she would share money from the movie with the women, but I don’t think the movie was ever made. 

Personally I find the controversies surrounding the author and the books quite intriguing …

My rating for The Little Coffee Shop - 4 Champagne Flutes