THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP OF KABUL by Deborah Rodriguez Format: Trade Paperback ISBN: 9781742750019 Imprint: Bantam Australia

Released in February, 2011

Reading Group Questions 1. Who was your favourite character, and why? 2. Of all the characters in the story, who do you think was the most brave and/or inspiring? 3. A working title for this novel was The Seventh Dove. What does Halajans story about the doves mean, and why does it have such a strong effect on Sunny? 4. Every character in the novel is hiding something. Do you agree with this statement? Discuss each characters secrets and subterfuges. 5. Five women are at the heart of this novel. But what do you think of the representation of men? 6. Did anything surprise you about the portrayal of Yazmina and Halajan? What facets of their characters stood out for you? 7. What was the most shocking thing you learnt about life for women in Afghanistan?

Reading Group Questions from The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez Available in bookshops February, 2011 | ISBN: 9781742750019 Imprint: Bantam Australia | Publisher: Random House Australia

Copyright Deborah Rodriguez 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

 THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP OF KABUL by Deborah Rodriguez Format: Trade Paperback ISBN: 9781742750019 Imprint: Bantam Australia Released in February, 2011

Reading Group Questions Answered by Deborah Rodriguez 1. Who was your favourite character and why? I have two favourite characters. Halajan always makes me smile and laugh; she represents the past and the present of Afghanistan. Halajan is one of those wise old women who can get away with saying what the rest of us are thinking. Sunny is another one of my favourites. I relate to Sunny in many different ways. I took aspects of myself and aspects of my girlfriends and embodied them into Sunny. When Sunny speaks I can hear the voice of many of my friends. 2. Of all the characters in the story, who do you think was the most brave and/or inspiring? I have a love-hate relationship with Candace. As the story begins to develop, Candace seems almost childlike, begging for love, needing a man to affirm that she is important and accepted. Candace had lost herself in the A-list, but was then affected by Afghanistan, just like many of us who have travelled and worked there. The country pulled her in and gave her a purpose. She felt she could make a difference in that country with or without the A-listers backing her. Candace liked power and powerful men, and she fell into the trap of Wakils smooth-talking ways. I didnt want to like Candace when I first started writing the book but in the end she really pulled through. She becomes the strong woman we all want her to be, the woman we all knew she could be. She just needed to believe in herself. I think this is really the case with so many women. Of all the characters in the book, I think Yazmina is really the strongest. She stands firm after being taken from her family and is adamant about keeping her child. She doesnt feel sorry for herself but is grateful for the chance of a new life. Halajan is one of those people you describe as having a bark worse than her bite. Her bluntness is refreshing. Shes taken Afghanistan and the troubles of the past, present and future in her stride. She has seen it all and this has made her such a strong, wise woman.

3. A working title for this novel was The Seventh Dove. What does Halajans story about the doves mean, and why does it have such a strong effect on Sunny? In Mazar-e-Sharif, the doves at the shrine complex of Sher Ali Khan are famous throughout Afghanistan. The legend say that every seventh dove contains a spirit, and the site is so holy that if a grey pigeon flies there it turns white within 40 days. I went to Mazar-e-Sharif with my mum and showed her the famous Blue Mosque. It was such a magical moment for both of us. We saw all these white doves and fed them like we were kids in a park. While there a young veiled women told us about the legend of the doves. Like Sunny, I felt overwhelmed by something much greater than myself. When violence is engulfing a country and your security is never sure, you go to the Blue Mosque and feel the magic, and for one moment you forget there is war. 4. Every character in the novel is hiding something. Do you agree with this statement? Discuss each characters secrets and subterfuges. With Afghanistan as the location for this book it was natural for the characters to have many secrets. When I lived there I realised it is a land of secrets. For example, the foreigner running away from something, hiding from their past, trying to remake their future. Or the Afghans coming face-to-face with the West and still trying to maintain the mask of tradition. For them, death could be the consequence of secrets being revealed. Love seems to be one of the biggest secrets. Afghans want to taste love yet tradition prevents it. Love is an emotion for the young and best kept in the Bollywood movies, its not for real life. Yazmina has two secrets - the first being her pregnancy. Being pregnant without a husband is a fate worse than death. (Animals are often treated better than the women of Afghanistan.) Her story is fiction but you can be sure there are many women in situations much harsher than Yazminas. Yasmina has a happy ending - most of the women in Afghanistan do not. Her second secret is her sister. People ask me why Yazmina doesnt talk about her sister sooner. But she is in a strange new world, with all these foreigners. Lack of trust plays a huge part in her not confiding in anyone. Yazmina doesnt know whom she could trust and is overwhelmed by her new circumstances. For her entire life she has been warned about these infidels who now have her fate in their hands. After her rape, Isabel is not ready to face up to how vulnerable she was at the hands of a man. Rape is much more than a physical assault; it attacks the soul and makes you feel so powerless. When Isabel said out loud I was raped it made it very real for her. It was at that point she began to take her power back. So many of Isabels choices revolve around this one event. Sadly she is just getting her life back when she dies. Halajan has to keep her secret due to the traditions of her country and her sons religious views. I tried to show that even the most progressive-thinking women are controlled by family and culture. Shaming the family is one thing Afghans fear the most. Ahmet didnt even know he had a secret. He was tormented by what his country said was right and what his heart was telling him.

Sunny hides her secrets behind her strong, stubborn personality. She is afraid of love, of having her heart broken. Candace is so wrapped up in herself she cant see the secrets that swirl around her. Real friendships, and tragedy, open Candaces eyes so she can finally see what is really going on in her life. Wakil lives for secrets. He is a conman and diabolical at best. He would use anything and anyone to further himself and his cause. Everything about Wakil is a lie and his success is based on his secrets never being revealed. 5. Five women are at the heart of this novel. But what do you think of the representation of men? Jack is the heart and soul of a good man, and I see him as a very specific type of man. He respects the culture and religion of Afghanistan along with being educated in Afghanistans traditions. He laughs and jokes with the Afghans in their own language, and they respond to him the same way. He doesnt win hearts and minds with guns and tanks; he wins them with respect and loyalty. I wanted a man like Jack in the book to illustrate how we can make a difference in Afghanistan. Jack shows us all the things we are doing right there, and Tommy shows us all the things we are doing wrong. Tommy is not in Afghanistan to help the people but to make money. War profiteering is huge business these days and I find it appalling. Kabul has its share of both Tommys and Jacks. Just thinking about men like Wakil makes me so angry. You see these men in action in Kabul, and its shocking, but until you learn better it is easy to trust them and be deceived. You see men who claim to be poor, working for $40 a month, but then you find out they are building multi-million-dollar homes for their family, the money scammed from foreigners and aid organisations. You see men talking wealthy women into bed, not for sex but for personal gain. Men like Wakil needed to be written about too. 6. Did anything surprise you about the portrayal of Yazmina and Halajan? What facets of their characters stood out for you? Well, naturally I can only answer this as the writer and how the characters would surprise me as they took life on the page. For example, I wished Yazmina would be more forthcoming about her sister. I kept screaming in my head for her to tell someone, but I also wanted to keep the book as close to real-life Afghanistan as possible, and I knew that trusting foreigners is a huge concern for Afghans. I also wanted Yazmina to share her pregnancy with Sunny and the rest of the coffee house. That is what foreigners would do - we would be beaming with joy whether we had a husband or not. But, again, that is not the case for Afghan women. I wanted Halajan to stand up to her son and profess her love for Rashid. I wanted her to be the strong progressive woman that we all knew she was. I wanted more fight out of her when it came to love. I hated that she was afraid of her own son, and she was controlled by tradition and culture. 7. What was the most shocking thing you learnt about life for women in Afghanistan? The most shocking thing I learned while living there was how even the most progressive, educated women are still in fear of the men. This fear crosses all the ethic, class and religious lines. A man is always in control; it may be a

father, uncle, or brother. Some women have many more freedoms than others but the bottom line is that a man is always in control. I saw how fear is the main way to control women. A woman can be thrown in prison if she runs away from her abusive husband. I am still shocked at how women are treated there. Some may be allowed to go to school but they are still beaten and abused at home. No one will step in to help them. When suicide seems the only way to make a statement, something is very wrong. We like to think that the situation for women has advanced since the Taliban has gone, but I am not sure how much that is true in the home. For example, I heard of a pregnant woman who had been ill and was having complications in her pregnancy. Instead of taking her to the doctor they took her to a Mullah (religious man). His cure was to beat the bad spirits out of her body. She was bruised from head to toe and lost the baby. The family didnt grieve because the baby was a girl and because it was somehow the mothers fault that she had bad spirits in her. The novel is set in Kabul, but we must remember that Kabul is only a small portion of Afghanistan. It would be like saying America is like New York City. So much of the aid and opportunity isnt reaching the women who really need it because of the dangers of going to remote areas. Education is the only thing that will help this country. If the young boys and girls get an education now, then maybe - just maybe - there will be hope for the country in the future.

Reading Group Questions answered by Deborah Rodriguez Available in bookshops February, 2011 | ISBN: 9781742750019 Imprint: Bantam Australia | Publisher: Random House Australia

Copyright Deborah Rodriguez 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.