A Fort of Nine Towers

Qais Akbar Omar is 29 years old. His young life coincided with one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan history: civil war, the rise of the Taliban, and the arrival of international troops in 2001. A Fort of Nine Towers - named for the place his parents first sought shelter from war - is the story of Qais' family and their remarkable survival. A group of tenacious and deeply loving people, when the fighting came they were buffeted from one part of Afghanistan to the next 'like kittens in the jaws of a lion', setting up camp on the plains, in the famous Buddha caves at Banyam, and with Kuchi nomads, before returning finally to Kabul, where they belong.