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A Door in the Earth Hardcover – August 27, 2019
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From the bestselling author of The Submission: A young Afghan-American woman is trapped between her ideals and the complicated truth in this "penetrating" (O, Oprah Magazine), "stealthily suspenseful," (Booklist, starred review), "breathtaking and achingly nuanced" (Kirkus, starred review) novel.
Parveen Shams, a college senior in search of a calling, feels pulled between her charismatic and mercurial anthropology professor and the comfortable but predictable Afghan-American community in her Northern California hometown. When she discovers a bestselling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has become a bible for American engagement in the country, she is inspired. Galvanized by Crane's experience, Parveen travels to a remote village in the land of her birth to join the work of his charitable foundation.
When she arrives, however, Crane's maternity clinic, while grandly equipped, is mostly unstaffed. The villagers do not exhibit the gratitude she expected to receive. And Crane's memoir appears to be littered with mistakes, or outright fabrications. As the reasons for Parveen's pilgrimage crumble beneath her, the U.S. military, also drawn by Crane's book, turns up to pave the solde road to the village, bringing the war in their wake. When a fatal ambush occurs, Parveen must decide whether her loyalties lie with the villagers or the soldiers -- and she must determine her own relationship to the truth.
Amy Waldman, who reported from Afghanistan for the New York Times after 9/11, has created a taut, propulsive novel about power, perspective, and idealism, brushing aside the dust of America's longest-standing war to reveal the complicated truths beneath. A Door in the Earth is the rarest of books, one that helps us understand living history through poignant characters and unforgettable storytelling.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
- Publication dateAugust 27, 2019
- Dimensions6.4 x 1.55 x 9.55 inches
- ISBN-100316451576
- ISBN-13978-0316451574
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Waldman has crafted a story that doesn't shrink from moral ambiguity and difficult questions."―Joumana Khatib, New York Times
"In her illuminating second novel, Waldman unpeels layers of cultural conditioning to explore the American use of 'kind power.'"―BBC
"Amy Waldman's penetrating second novel speaks truth to power."―Leigh Haber, O, The Oprah Magazine
"Waldman writes about the clash of cultures and ideals with clean-lined grace and quiet eye-level empathy."―Entertainment Weekly
"Waldman's characters are fully realized individuals, as morally complex as the choices facing them...Waldman is that rare novelist who writes from both the head and heart, combining high moral seriousness with moments of irony and humor. In A Door in the Earth, she has created a novel as moving as it is provocative."―Elizabeth Toohey, Christian Science Monitor
"Waldman delivers a breathtaking and achingly nuanced examination of the grays in a landscape where black and white answers have long been the only currency. A bone-chilling takedown of America's misguided use of soft power."―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A deeply well-informed, utterly engrossing, mischievously disarming, and stealthily suspenseful tale...Every aspect of this complex and caustic tale of hype and harm is saturated with insight and ruefulness."―Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)
"A Door in the Earth is a deeply chilling, multifaceted examination of not just the situation in Afghanistan but also the more pernicious and complex consequences of awakening the sleeping giant that is America."―Stephenie Harrison, Bookpage (starred review)
"Thrilling and brilliantly nuanced...The most stunning and supple novel of the season for anyone who wants to understand the larger world and our part in it...A Door in the Earth brings The Quiet American into a new millennial generation."―Pico Iyer, bestselling author of The Art of Stillness and The Open Road
"Waldman's moral vision, spare and unsparing prose style, and feel for the way history upsets settled lives all make A Door in the Earth one of the essential books of the post-9/11 era."―George Packer, National Book Award winner for The Unwinding
"Amy Waldman brings her fierce intelligence and breathtaking descriptive powers to bear in this brilliant, unsentimental novel."―Nell Freudenberger, New York Times bestselling author of Lost and Wanted
"Some stories stick with you, becoming like your own memories. When I finished the last page of this book I could've sworn it had all happened to me."―Elliot Ackerman, National Book Award finalist for Dark at the Crossing
"Potent...Waldman paints a blistering portrayal of the misguided aspirations and convenient lies that have fed the war in Afghanistan. This is an impressive novel.―Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company; First Edition (August 27, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316451576
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316451574
- Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.4 x 1.55 x 9.55 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,505 in Political Fiction (Books)
- #3,167 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
- #47,403 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Amy Waldman turned to fiction writing after fifteen years as a journalist, and she has published two novels: A Door in the Earth and The Submission, which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Fiction award and was named #1 book of the year by Entertainment Weekly and Esquire. She was a reporter for The New York Times for eight years, including three as co-chief of the South Asia bureau. The territory she covered included Afghanistan, where A Door in the Earth is set. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the American Academy in Berlin. Her fiction has appeared in the Boston Review and the Atlantic and was anthologized in The Best American Non-Required Reading 2010. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives with her husband and nine-year-old twins in Brooklyn.
Customer reviews
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Customers find the book thought-provoking and interesting. They say the subject matter resonates with them, and the story is powerful from a unique perspective. The book is described as a good read with a good pace.
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Customers enjoy the book. They find it thought-provoking and interesting. The subject matter resonates with their book club, and the story is powerful from a unique perspective. Overall, readers describe it as a good read.
"...Would we want them to come to our country and do the same? A thought provoking book for us who have gone overseas as well as for those who are..." Read more
"...recently withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan, the subject matter resonated with our book club...." Read more
"...Really powerful story from a unique POV." Read more
"This book was chosen as the monthly read in our book group. It was very interesting and very readable." Read more
Reviews with images
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Six stars!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020Many of us in the U.S. have traveled to foreign countries feeling that we had something to offer them. I did so myself, as a missionary, for years. This book has made me contemplate this decision. Why did I do it? Was it truly for them or deep down inside was it for me? Did it do them any good for me to try to be their hero? For those of us who go no matter what our capacity (medical missions, military, and so forth) when all is said and done have we done them any good or were we really just after the personal high that comes from believing that we can rescue them in some way? When we leave, will they be better off because we went? Do we have a right to interfere with their way of living? Would we want them to come to our country and do the same? A thought provoking book for us who have gone overseas as well as for those who are thinking about going. I wish that I had read it years ago but still am very glad that I have read it now.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2019This lovely book is one of those instant-classic, both-timely-and-timeless works that crop up all too seldom. A Door in the Earth is timely because, as of 2019, the U.S. is still in Afghanistan (18 years on), still doing great harm with the best of intentions.
It is timeless because my favorite of the book's various themes is the ongoing arrogance of Americans as we've visited long-lasting disasters on countless "simpler" cultures over the decades. In this case it is Afghanistan, and the main character Parveen comes to see that she, too, wanted to "help" the villagers in one Afghan outpost regardless of what they, themselves, had to say about it.
Parveen is of Afghan descent, but she is quintessentially American in her enthusiasm, naivete and impulsiveness. She comes of age during her sojourn in the remote Afghan village, losing both her worship of her literary hero and her hubris, as she gains insight into and appreciation of a very foreign culture.
This is a very good book, but it seemed to me quite long, and in many spots bordered on educational rather than novelistic. Well worth reading, though! Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2020Amy Waldman hardly needs more good reviews, but I'd feel negligent not to add my recommendation. She's clearly been there, understands the terrain, and has learned to be skeptical of those who arrive, claiming they want to help, but whose real motives are hidden, perhaps sometimes even from themselves.
A few years back, Greg Mortenson was the real-life pseudo-savior. He claimed to be building schools and promoting girls' education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but his real skill was at building his own status and ego. "A Door in the Earth" is a novel; Waldman doesn't claim to know just what motivated Mortenson. But in this fictionalized account of a pseudo-savior who built women's health clinics, Waldman has given us a better understanding of people like Mortenson, and the problems they cause. She's also given us an exceptionally absorbing, fast-paced book.
Amy Waldman hardly needs more good reviews, but I'd feel negligent not to add my recommendation. She's clearly been there, understands the terrain, and has learned to be skeptical of those who arrive, claiming they want to help, but whose real motives are hidden, perhaps sometimes even from themselves.
A few years back, Greg Mortenson was the real-life pseudo-savior. He claimed to be building schools and promoting girls' education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but his real skill was at building his own status and ego. "A Door in the Earth" is a novel; Waldman doesn't claim to know just what motivated Mortenson. But in this fictionalized account of a pseudo-savior who built women's health clinics, Waldman has given us a better understanding of people like Mortenson, and the problems they cause. She's also given us an exceptionally absorbing, fast-paced book.
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2020This book did not start out as a war story. The war only colors the first 2/3 of the book. But, when it arrives, the war does what all wars do, it mows down everything in its path. I really liked that this was a combination of a coming of age tale, set in the wilds of Afghanistan. The setting and characters were vividly drawn. There were lots of avenues to explore and maybe the first parts meandered a bit long. The last section felt like a whirlwind.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2019I found the main character's naivety and gullibility wore on me after a while
- Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2021A Door in the Earth was a very good read. Since the US has recently withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan, the subject matter resonated with our book club. Our presence in a country we truly know little about, may have done more harm than good. It puts a microscope on the tragedy of war and even the efforts of some you think they can change a culture for the “better”.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2021As an aid worker, this story took me behind the scenes to a character who belongs - but not really. Her exploration into how local populations view Americans / foreigners who come to country to help, but end up doing the exact opposite. Really powerful story from a unique POV.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting book at a particularly good time as it deals with Afghanistan.
This book was chosen as the monthly read in our book group. It was very interesting and very readable.
Top reviews from other countries
- Kalliat T MeeraReviewed in India on November 11, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Feedback
The packing was good and book reached me in perfect condition. Thank you
-
Johannes FEESTReviewed in Germany on May 17, 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Punktlandung
Kaum ist das Buch erschienen, beschließen die US-Amerikaner aus Afghanistan abzuziehen. Die Autorin hat es geschafft, uns perfekt auf diesen Abzug vorzubereiten. Und zwar nicht abstrakt, sondern im Detail, quasi in Nahaufnahme. Das ist so spannend, dass man immer wieder die Konstruiertheit der Handlung vergisst.