num_pages: 208
description: Farhad is a typical student, interested in wine, women and poetry, and negligent of the religious conservatism of his grandfather. But one night changes all that. It is 1979 and Afghanistan is in the early days of the pro-Soviet coup. Farhad goes out drinking with a friend who is about to flee to Pakistan. A few hours later he regains consciousness in a strange house, beaten and confused. At first he thinks he is dead. Then he begins to remember what happened. As his mind sifts through its memories, fears and hallucinations, and the outlines of reality start to harden, he realises that, if he is to escape the soldiers who wish to finish the job they started, he too must leave everything he loves behind him and find a way to get to Pakistan.
language: English
title: A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear
titlecomplete: A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear
characters: Farhad Mirdad
genres: Asian Literature, Asia, Novels, War, Romance, Historical Fiction, Literature, Contemporary, Fiction, International
ratings_count: 953
places: Afghanistan, Kabul
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
category: Longlist
publisher: Chatto & Windus