“This compelling tale features the stories of five women in Afghanistan and how living surrounded by conflict and danger affects their lives.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul was in a stack of books I picked up at the charity shop a few weeks ago. I’m a little obsessed with Afghanistan and the title immediately caught my eye. The book is about an American woman called Sunny, who runs a coffee shop in Kabul.

When I started reading I wondered if it was going to go down that familiar ‘Western woman falls in love with dark, handsome stranger, saves an oppressed nation’ trope that we see a lot in Western novels about other areas of the world, but thankfully that isn’t the case here. In fact what you get is a lovely novel about friendship, love and life, it’s just set somewhere a bit different.

Life in Kabul, and the political problems the area has faced is intertwined through this beautiful yet simple story about fitting in, making friendships, falling in love, and the every day wonders of life, against the every day trials of living in a war zone.

It’s not deep or hugely meaningful, this book isn’t going to change your life, but it may change your perceptions a little. I found myself wondering what Sunny and the others were up to even when I wasn’t reading, and found myself looking forward to getting a little me time every day to read it, that’s always the sign of a good book and it’s true here too! While The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul wasn’t a life-changing, gritty or astonishing read, it’s going on my rereads shelf as I’m sure there’s a time I’ll want to pick it up again.