99 Nights in Logar

"Ferocious, funny, rude and freewheeling..."—Karan Mahajan, author of The Association of Small BombsA coming-of-age story about one boy's journey across contemporary Afghanistan to find and bring home the family dog, blending the grit and immediacy of voice-driven fiction like We Need New Names with the mythmaking of One Thousand and One Nights.What looms in twelve-year-old Marwand's memory from his previous visit to Afghanistan six years ago is his contentious relationship with Budabash, the terrifying but beloved dog who guards his extended family's compound in the rural village of Logar. But eager for an ally in this place that is meant to be "home," Marwand misreads his reunion with the dog and approaches Budabash the way he would any pet on his American suburban block—and the results are disastrous: Marwand loses a finger, and Budabash escapes into the night.But Marwand is not chastened and doubles down on his...