On one level, The Red Wrath: A Journey between Two Destinies by Hatef Mokhtar is the story of a boy who struggled through the times of Russian war in Afghanistan and how he made his way to Norway in the wake of Afghan civil war by revealing some of the most brutal insights of Talibans regime. It is a story set in a culture that has become of increasing interest to the World since the September 11, 2001 attacks. On this level, it provides a good way for people to learn more about Afghan history and culture in the context of story.

Looking at The Red Wrath: A Journey between Two Destinies as a story about culture, however, misses what the book is really about. This is a novel about humanity. This is a story about friendship, loyalty, cruelty, longing for acceptance, redemption and survival. The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal.

The Red Wrath: A Journey between Two Destinies looks at how the main character, Asif, deals with the feeling of separation & loss in his past and how that these shaped who he became. It tells of Asif's childhood love, his relationship with his father and growing up in a privileged place in society. I was drawn in by Asif's voice. I sympathized with him, cheered for him and felt angry with him at different points. Similarly, I became attached to his character and his father. The characters became real to me, and it was difficult for me to put the book down and leave their world.

It has a perfect blend of time zone which moves with the flow of history describing the events and their impacts on the lives of the people of Afghanistan in its truest form and in its realistic sense, keeping the readers attention intact from the first to the last chapters of one of its kind story which The Red Wrath: A Journey between Two Destinies offers to a person.

For those of you who are not in a reading group, read it and then loan it to a friend. You are going to want to talk about it when you finish.