Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In 2001, teenager Noor Ahmed was walking through the Afghan village of Gayawa when he noticed a group of people huddled in a corner. They told him that everyone else in their village had died in a surprise Taliban attack. #2 In 1994, Afghanistan was ravaged by a civil war, but the Taliban, a fanatical band of religious students, swept aside the warring factions and imposed their own version of Islamic law. The Taliban's Afghanistan was brutal and unforgiving. #3 Many of the local stories I would hear involved a particular Taliban unit, one that was feared for its brutality. They would travel from village to village demanding taxes and household firearms. #4 I met Mullah Cable, a Taliban commander, in Kabul in 2009. He was tall and lanky, with a gold tooth and tattoos all over his arms. He claimed to have quit the Taliban in 2001, when the group was backed by the U. S. , and had since then been fighting against them.