In 1969, several young men met on a rainy night in Kabul to form an Islamist student group. Their aim was laid out in a simple typewritten statement: to halt the spread of Soviet and American influence in Afghanistan. They went on to change the world. Night Letters tells the extraordinary story of the group's most notorious member, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and the guerrilla organzation he came to lead, Hizb-e Islami. By the late 1980s, tens of thousands were drawn to Hekmatyar's vision of a radical Islamic state that would sow unrest from Kashmir to Jerusalem. His doctrine of violent global jihad culminated in 9/11 and the birth of ISIS, yet he never achieved his dream of ruling Afghanistan. The peace deal he signed with Kabul in 2016 was yet another controversial twist in an astonishing life. Sands and Qazizai delve into the secret history of Hekmatyar and Hizb-e Islami: their wars against Russian and American troops, and their bloody and bitter feuds with domestic enemies. Based on hundreds of exclusive interviews carried out across the region and beyond, this is the definitive account of the most important, yet poorly understood, international Islamist movement of the last fifty years.

For five years, Australian doctor Sofia Raso has lived in Kabul’s vibrant Shaahir Square, working with Dr Jabril Aziz to support the local women. She knows that living peacefully in Kabul requires following two simple rules: keep a low profile; and keep out of local affairs. Yet when threatening night letters from the Taliban taunt the town, and young boys disappear from Jamal Mina, Kabul’s largest slum, Sofia can no longer remain silent. While the square is encased by fear, an elegant former warlord proves an unlikely ally, and a former lover re-emerges with a warning. As the search for the boys intensifies, and Sofia feels herself being drawn back into a love affair she thought had ended, it soon becomes clear that answers will bring a heavy price. Gripping and evocative, The Night Letters takes you to the heart of Kabul in a story of secrets, friendship and love in all its imperfect guises. ‘Full of wonderful prose and with a stunning sense of place, The Night Letters is a story of love, betrayal, corruption and friendship. It made me weep and cheer.’ – Michael Robotham, author of When She Was Good ‘A bittersweet and astonishingly detailed narration of both the simplicity and complexity of life in Afghanistan. What I loved about the book is that it does not represent Afghan women as passive and docile, but you will learn about their stories of bravery, struggles, and persistence.’ ­– Aalam Gul Farhad

Winner of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award Every night for twenty nights in a hotel room in Venice, an Australian man recently diagnosed with an incurable disease writes a letter home to a friend. In these letters, against a rich background of earlier journeys in literature, with Dante as his imagined guide, he reflects on what it means to live a good life in the face of death. Praise for Night Letters by Robert Dessaix ‘Dessaix writes with great elegance, with passion, compassion and sly wit. Literally, a wonderful book.’ John Banville ‘An absolutely unique book: intelligent, funny, rich, tender at the right moments, a plum pudding of stories, observations and discoveries.’ Alberto Manguel ‘Night Letters is exhilarating. The goads, the teasing, the question marks fired up into the atmosphere make any passive reading of it quite impossible.’ The Sydney Morning Herald

Lily goes into her backyard after supper and takes notes on what the insects and natural objects have to tell her.

When Schultheis was a freelance reporter in Afghanistan during the 1970s, the traditional enemy of the US was the Soviet Union, and its traditional allies freedom fighters like Osama Bin Ladin. He adds a new introduction decrying the betrayal of the US after the mujahedin captured Kabul. There is no index or bibliography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

British artist Roger Hilton (1911-75) produced Night Letters during the final two years of his life. Confined to his bed, Hilton created upwards of 1,000 colorful gouaches and illustrated messages for his wife. With previously unseen works, this book includes 300 reproductions from the collection.

My interest in USS Howorth originated during my thirty-three months of duty in the Pacific Fleet destroyer Hamner, named after Howorth's gunnery officer killed at Okinawa, Lieutenant Henry R. "Pete" Hamner. His legacy jncluded the Reader's Digest subscriptions his mother presented each year to the wardroom and crew. Later, as executive officer in the hydrofoil Plainview, exasperated by the endless stream of logs and records demanded by higher authorities, I peevishly tested the navy's record system and wrote away for information on Lieutenant Hamner and Howorth. I was surprised by the magnitude of the material documenting Howorth's Pacific War, ranging from hourly barometric readings and seawater injection temperatures to ammunition effectiveness reports.