Oral traditions are incredibly important for Afghan author Jamil Kochai, who says he depended heavily on them for his debut novel and they sparked a new life in his book.
"If there hadn't been for oral traditions I grew up listening to, I am not sure whether I would have finished my book in its present form. The oral traditions sparked a new life in my novel," says Pakistan-born Kochai who grew up in the US.
His "99 Nights in Logar" blends the bravado and vulnerability of a boy's teenage years with an homage to familial oral tradition.
Kochai says his book is really rooted in this memory that kept coming back to him after he returned to the US from a trip to Afghanistan when he was 12 years old.
"Our family guard dog Budabash escaping from our compound in Logar (one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan). He leapt over the wall and then ran away towards the village. My cousins and I set out to find him," he recalls.
"I kept thinking about the resulting search through mazes, into floods and unexpected confrontations with American soldiers, who were then stationed in Afghanistan. I wanted to tell about these exuberant adventure tales across Logar and thus the idea of the novel came," he says.
Questions cropped up in his mind about whether or not he knew enough of Afghanistan, has enough experience of Afghanistan or whether it was his right to write this novel.
"But these questions led me to focus a great deal on research, to focus on making sure that I have other people's narratives involved in my work," Kochai told PTI in an interview.
"If there was this sort of fear that as an Afghan who grew up in the US, I didn't have the right perspective or knowledge to write this novel, I made sure that the stories and the perspectives of my parents, my uncles and aunts, and my cousins who grew up in Afghanistan are also told."
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