The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth: A book review by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor

As most of you have likely gathered by now, I am a huge fan of espionage thrillers with this genre making up a very large piece of my personal reading shelves.  British author, Frederick Forsyth, is a master at espionage fiction; I am a huge fan and own many of his novels, and I am the proud owner of a first edition hardcover of The Afghan.  After having recently learned of his passing, I was saddened to realize that only one of Forsyth books is autographed.  To honor him and mark his passing, I chose to pick up and read The Afghan as my next book.  Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

 

This novel was published in 2006, and I bought my copy in November of that same year. For fun, I often keep my book receipts tucked in the inside cover so I can see just how long it takes me to read the book after I buy it and also to compare book prices from then to now.  One bright side of my dropping a social media platform is that I’m much more free to read so many wonderful books that I acquired over the years.  With all this said, let me jump in and share my thoughts on another great read, The Afghan.

 

 

This book centers on espionage and contemporary terrorism and Al-Qaeda is about to do something large. One big problem, however, is that neither American nor British Intelligence agencies know what is about to take place.  Enter Colonel Mike Martin whose job it is to infiltrate the terrorists.  As a bonus, Colonel Martin has a striking resemblance to Izmat Khan, a former Taliban commander, which makes him ideally suited for this task at hand.

 

I loved the detailed descriptive training of Colonel Martin’s transformation into Khan, which involved acquiring deep knowledge of the Afghan culture, language, religion and customs.  Having lived in four different countries myself, I fully appreciated the challenges Colonel Martin faced assimilating to the different cultures and accents. Even the smallest slip could have blown his cover in an instant.  This alone kept me on the edge of my seat as I was not just reading but living in the moment.

 

Clearly Forsyth’s background as a correspondent for Reuters and a reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp. TV & Radio helps the reader move at a fast pace, and trying to keep up with the plot at times can be challenging particularly if you’ve not had military or covert experience or training.  As for me, I loved every twist and turn that others might consider a distraction to the plot.  

I am so glad I read this book rather than put it on the backburner to keep the sequential order of his books.  All I can say is I look forward to reading more of his previous books that had been collecting dust on my bookshelves, and I am sad that there will be no further works coming from the pen of one of my favorite authors.