At the start of
Shooting Kabul, Fadi is living in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2000. The Taliban is in power and his American educated parents are becoming targets of the regime. So they arrange to leave, hiring smugglers to get them across the border to Pakistan. When the truck arrives to take them and the other refugees who have arranged passage, a truck full of Taliban fighters are closing in fast. In the hurry and the rush to get aboard the truck, Fadi loses his grip on the hand of his 6 year old sister Miriam, and she is left behind. After all efforts to locate her from Pakistan fail, the family, Fadi's parents and his older sister, Noor, reluctantly travel to Fremont, California where relatives await them. Fadi slowly adjusts to life in America, all the while blaming himself for Miriam's disappearance. In Pakistan, Fadi and his father Habib, frequently took photographs together, so when he finds out there is a photo club at his school, he joins hoping to win the top prize in a photo contest for students--a trip to India, close enough to Pakistan he thinks to be able to search for Miriam. Fadi works on his photos, and is adjusting to life in the United States when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 occur. Soon, he is a target for bullies at his school blaming him and the other Afghan students for the attack. The book effectively portrays the challenge of dealing with bullies, the struggle of being an outsider and adjusting to a new life, and the importance of strong family ties. Based in part on the author's husband's story of leaving Afganistan during the Soviet occupation in 1979.
