Carter Malkasian spent nearly two years in Garmser district as the political officer working for the US Department of State. A Pashto speaker, he lived in a Marine outpost but spent most of his time with Afghans, often riding, eating, and sleeping with them. He interviewed hundreds of Afghans about the war, their district, and its history, including forty or so Taliban.

'War Comes to Garmser explores the war in Afghanistan from an explicitly provincial Afghan point of view, where foreigners (and even Kabul officials) are marginal actors rather than the centre of the story. Malkasian presents what is in effect a fifty-year oral history of a single district in volatile southern Afghanistan, illustrating the truism that all politics is local. - Even those with little interest in the politics cannot help but be drawn into the lives of the vivid characters Malkasian skilfully sketches.'

Carter Malkasian spent nearly two years in Garmser district as the political officer working for the US Department of State. A Pashto speaker, he lived in a Marine outpost but spent most of his time with Afghans, often riding, eating, and sleeping with them. He interviewed hundreds of Afghans about the war, their district, and its history, including forty or so Taliban.

'War Comes to Garmser explores the war in Afghanistan from an explicitly provincial Afghan point of view, where foreigners (and even Kabul officials) are marginal actors rather than the centre of the story. Malkasian presents what is in effect a fifty-year oral history of a single district in volatile southern Afghanistan, illustrating the truism that all politics is local. - Even those with little interest in the politics cannot help but be drawn into the lives of the vivid characters Malkasian skilfully sketches.'

Carter Malkasian spent nearly two years in Garmser district as the political officer working for the US Department of State. A Pashto speaker, he lived in a Marine outpost but spent most of his time with Afghans, often riding, eating, and sleeping with them. He interviewed hundreds of Afghans about the war, their district, and its history, including forty or so Taliban.

'War Comes to Garmser explores the war in Afghanistan from an explicitly provincial Afghan point of view, where foreigners (and even Kabul officials) are marginal actors rather than the centre of the story. Malkasian presents what is in effect a fifty-year oral history of a single district in volatile southern Afghanistan, illustrating the truism that all politics is local. - Even those with little interest in the politics cannot help but be drawn into the lives of the vivid characters Malkasian skilfully sketches.'