82 pages • 2-hour read
Shooting Kabul
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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Getaway”
Chapter 1 begins on the night Fadi and his parents escape from Kabul. As their taxi speeds through war-torn streets, Fadi thinks about his favorite book, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. He admires the protagonist, Claudia, for planning to run away. Fadi’s father and the taxi driver reminisce about how the city used to be vibrant and full of merchants before the Soviet occupation.
Fadi flashes back to the previous winter, on the day his father announced that they would be leaving Afghanistan. The apartment is bare; they have sold all their belongings on the black market to pay for their passports and paperwork. Habib explains that the Taliban are becoming more repressive that and even slight infractions of their laws, like possessing human-looking toys such as a Barbie doll, are grounds for imprisonment. We learn that Habib received his Ph.D. in agriculture in Wisconsin and returned to Afghanistan to help farmers transition from growing poppies for the opium trade to growing food. We also learn that Mariam was born in Wisconsin.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Lost”
Chapter 2 picks up with the family hiding in the shadows, waiting for the transport that will take them across the border. Fadi’s bag contains his only possessions: “a change of clothes, the family photo album, his Matchbox cars, an old honey tin, and his camera, the old Minolta XE” (178). He also carries From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. He recalls how his mother would take him and Noor to buy books on the black market after the Taliban banned all non-religious books.
Soon a green truck stops with its engine running. Fadi, his family, and the other families all sprint toward it, since they know it could leave at any moment. The Nurzais become separated. Fadi holds Mariam’s hand while Noor looks after Zafoona. Habib follows with their luggage. When Fadi and Mariam are almost at the truck, someone raises the alarm that the Taliban are coming. Habib pulls Fadi into the truck, but Mariam slips out of Fadi’s grasp when she reaches for her fallen Barbie doll, Gulmina. The Taliban give chase to the truck, and Mariam is left with the others who failed to board.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Asylum”
Chapter 3 jumps forward to Fadi and his family on a plane from London’s Heathrow Airport to the United States. We learn that Habib’s former professor in the United States helped the Nurzais file for asylum so that they could legally enter the country as refugees. The family is worn out, and Habib is ashamed because he could not protect his daughter, which is one of his greatest duties as a Pukhtun man.
In a flashback, we learn that the Nurzais fled Kabul because the Taliban had approached Habib to join them as an ambassador to the United Nations. They believed that his American education would allow him to better communicate the Taliban’s message. Habib and Zafoona know better than to get involved with the Taliban. The Taliban have already given refuge to Osama bin Laden and are preparing to go to war with their rival military faction, the Northern Alliance. A flashback-within-a-flashback reveals that Zafoona never wanted to return to Afghanistan from the United States, but Habib convinced her with his idealistic beliefs about helping his country. They returned in 1996 and quickly realized that the once heroic Taliban had become a dangerous, oppressive regime.
Back on the plane, Habib tries to assure Zafoona that Mariam will be safe. After all, she is an American citizen, and they have already multiple agencies looking for her. Knowing this does little to ease Fadi’s mind because he still feels deep guilt for letting go of her hand.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first chapters introduce Fadi and his family and chronicle their difficult journey out of Afghanistan. Senzai uses a motif that will continue throughout the book: Fadi’s repeated references to From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. From his interest in this book, it becomes clear that he is independent and likes adventure. Like the book’s protagonist, Claudia, Fadi is willing to take risks.
The first chapters establish the novel’s narrative voice, which closely mirrors Fadi’s own, and the reader sees the world and its complex events from his point of view. The first sentence in Chapter 1, “It’s a perfect night to run away, (31), is Fadi’s internal monologue.
While such close third-person narration gives the reader insight into Fadi’s thoughts and develops him as a nuanced, complex character, it places a greater burden on the narrative to convey a more comprehensive view of the events taking place. The author provides this bigger picture by disguising much of the novel’s exposition as dialogue between the other characters. The last major narrative element the opening chapters establish is Fadi’s intense guilt over his sister Mariam’s being left behind in Kabul. His guilt motivates all his actions throughout the novel, at times blinding him to the suffering of his other family members. Rather than helping Fadi forge a bond of shared experience, his guilt creates a barrier of self-centeredness between him and the rest of his family.
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