Praise for The Opium Prince
“The Opium Prince is the sort of fiction that plunges readers deep inside its world. Full of rich, brisk descriptions, memorable characters, historical references and more than a little melodrama, the book involves and intrigues. —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Aimaq has written a brilliant thriller filled with twists and turns and tragic miscalculations, a breathtaking story of a man pushed to the brink, and a nation on the verge of violent revolution.” —Neil Nyren/BookTrib
"Offering a piercing look at the Afghan view of foreign aid and patriarchal foreigners, Aimaq, who is half-Afghan and spent part of her life in the country, is a writer to watch. Every carefully described detail here will stay with readers as they examine what they thought they knew about America’s exporting of democracy and its war on drugs. For its worlds-within-worlds quality, give this to David Mitchell fans; it’s also a great choice for bookclubs." —Booklist, Starred Review
”This debut novel is compelling and Aimaq’s observations astute. The Opium Prince is ambitious, complex and multifaceted – what every novel about a nation should aspire to be.” —Chicago Review of Books
“[The Opium Prince] provides a good example of what William Faulkner believed to be the goal of all authors and poets: to depict ‘the human heart in conflict with itself ... because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.’” —The CS Monitor
"Deeply informed, beautifully written, vivid characters, with a real feel for this complex culture and geopolitical agony from competing perspectives. A stunning debut literary novel." —Graham Fuller, former CIA Station Chief in Kabul
"[A] stellar debut . . . Aimaq, a former arms control analyst for a non-profit, draws heavily on her childhood experiences in Afghanistan to provide glimpses into the complicated political and cultural dynamics of a country that has seen nearly half a century of constant war. Though she has altered some historical details to fit the narrative, her observations provide astonishing context to contemporary global issues such as Islamic extremism and the international heroin trade. Fans of Lauren Wilkinson’s Cold War thriller American Spy won’t want to miss this one." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"The Opium Prince is an evocative, overdue tale of Afghanistan, written with searing insight by Jasmine Aimaq. Against the backdrop of 1970s Kabul, Aimaq sets an edgy cat-and-mouse game between a half-Afghan US government official and an opium khan, threaded together by the hard beauty of the country's land and people. I couldn’t put it down." —Cara Black, New York Times bestselling author of the Aimée Leduc series and Three Hours in Paris
"Daniel Sajadi is a complicated protagonist: an idealist, a loving husband, and the burdened son of a hero, so driven by his goals that he’s blind to the consequences of his actions, yet we never stop rooting for him. Jasmine Aimaq's writing is gorgeous, creating a fully immersive universe—the sights, sounds and smells of city versus desert; the fields of poppies; and the Russian tanks and cigarette smoke of an Afghanistan unlike the one most Americans know. A cinematic yet introspective page-turner." —Chaya Deitsch, author of Here and There: Leaving Hasidism and Keeping My Family
"[A] novel of soft power and shadowy machinations . . . Jasmine Aimaq has crafted a powerful critique of criminal empires large and small, and I can’t wait to see more from her.” —Crime Reads/LitHub
Interviews etc.
Read my “Five Books” recommendations on LitHub
Read the review and author feature on BookTrib.
Read the interview in Publishers Weekly.
More to come!