Melville House Books

The subject of Asne Seierstad‘s first book is not happy. The real-life Bookseller of KabuL, she says, told the her, “‘Asne, I don’t like this book so I’ll come to Norway and we’ll sit down for two weeks and we’ll rewrite it,’” says Seierstad. “He wanted me to tell the world I was sorry for the first book. I said this was not possible.” But now that’s behind her, she explains in this interview with Julie Wheelwright for The Indpenedent, and her new book, A Hundred and One Days: a Baghdad Journal, tells about “her experience of covering the second Gulf War.” Says Wheelwright, “A Hundred and One Days lacks the emotional intensity and rich detail of The Bookseller of Kabul, but it does capture the gut-wrenching tragedy of thousands who were — quite literally — caught in the crossfire.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.