The Taliban Shuffle: strange days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
About this ebook
Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent — she is candid, self-deprecating, and funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about the ability of US might to win hearts and minds in the region. As she does the ‘Taliban shuffle’ between conflict zones, Barker offers a close-up account of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban.
When Barker arrives in Kabul, foreign aid is at a record low, electricity is a pipe dream, and of the few remaining foreign troops, some aren’t allowed out after dark. Meanwhile, in the vacuum left by the US and NATO, the Taliban is regrouping.
Swift, funny, and wholly original, The Taliban Shuffle unforgettably captures the absurdity and tragedy of our modern wars.
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About the author
Kim Barker grew up in Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon, and graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism. She worked at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, for four years, and The Seattle Times for two years, winning awards for her investigative reporting. In 2001, at age 30, she joined the Chicago Tribune, and began making reporting trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan the next year. Barker was the Tribune’s South Asia bureau chief from 2004 to 2009. She was then awarded the Council on Foreign Relations’ Edward R. Murrow press fellowship to study Afghanistan and Pakistan. She now lives in New York City, where she works as a reporter at ProPublica.