Najaf Mazari

Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman

From the authors of the highly acclaimed bestseller, The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif, The Honey Thief is a compelling and beautifully told superb collection of spell-binding modern fables from Afghanistan that portray a vivid landscape of hardship and brotherhood, catastrophes and miracles, that bring to life the mystery and wonder of that country and its people. Tales of leopards that sing and bees that sneeze; of horseshoe bats in flights that blot out the sun, and of blackbirds that bring golden apples to earth is redolent of our best loved Middle-eastern writers and the magic realism of an Isobel Allende. The sorrow of this extraordinary land is here too, told through the story of the king-killer, Abdul Kaliq, who ends his life on a scaffold in Kabul; and of Majid the Madman who turns to music for solace when his children die of plague. Other tales include that of an aged wolf who proves to a shepherd boy that he is the most intelligent creature on earth; of proud Nadia, courted with a copy of Huckleberry Finn; and of the master poisoner, Nightfall, who creates a cookbook of enchantments. Whether the tale is of beekeepers or kings, The Honey Thief conveys in stories of surprising tenderness the stark beauty of the interwoven lore from a land of bloodshed and brotherhood, of miracles and catastrophes.

Najaf Mazari & Robert Hillman

Best-selling memoir, The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif, traces the story of a young Afghan man’s extraordinary journey from a shepherd boy in the mountains of northern Afghanistan, to asylum seeker in Woomera Detention Centre and, finally, to owner of a successful Afghan traditional rug shop in Melbourne, Australia, and founder of the charitable fund, AusGhan Aid.

Although Mazari flees his country in 2001, this moving and poignant work, laced with a good dose of humour, continues to delight and move readers because of its recognisably universal insights into the refugee experience: the conditions that create the ‘refugee’ in the first place, the trauma and heartache as a result of leaving everything and everyone behind, the dangerous journey to the ‘promised land’, and the often hostile reception and loss of identity, purpose and even freedom, on arrival.

Mazari begins life in a mountain village where families lived a simple, contented ‘milk and honey’ life typical of so many, before the Civil War ripped that country apart. The lives and livelihood of farmers, craftsmen and small business owners and their families that had existed for centuries, were destroyed in just weeks and months.

As a member of the Hazara tribe, hated and targeted by the Taliban, Mazari was forced to flee the brutal attacks on his people when the Northern Alliance fell to the advancing Taliban insurgents; although not before he was brutally tortured by them. His dangerous, overland flight to Pakistan, from there to Indonesia, then by boat to Australia, ends with him in the notorious Woomera Detention Centre in the Central Australian desert country, where the story begins.

The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif was the first book-length account from a representative of the many refugees who have arrived in Australia since the beginning of this century; and is exquisitely captured in his own voice. From the compelling opening sentence to the beautiful and touching final chapter, Najaf’s integrity, his extraordinary optimism and his generosity of spirit wins the hearts and minds of all readers. ‘Engaging’, ‘compelling’, ‘inspiring’ are the responses of readers of the book.