Author(s): Sean Langan

War

Film-maker and journalist Sean Langan was used to working in some of the most dangerous places on earth. But when he went to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in search of a meeting with a high-ranking Al-Qaida official, he had no idea of the ordeal that was to ensue and that he was sleepwalking into his worst nightmare. Arrested as a spy, he was imprisoned with his translator Sami with a family of Taliban supporters, and assumed the worst. However, by appealing to the strict Pashtun codes of hospitality, Sean slowly gained the trust of his jailers and, Scheherezade-like, used stories of life in the West to extend his welcome. And finally, he is accepted as a guest of the family: "This roof above our heads means more to us than gold" explains his captor, "and we will die to protect it. And you are a guest in our home, and that is a matter of tribal honour." But when one morning a Taliban death squad returns to pick up the hostages, the situation is no longer this simple...This extraordinary true story of friendship across a yawning cultural divide is as moving as "The Bookseller of Kabul" and as gripping as "Three Cups of Tea". As terrifying as it is enlightening, Sean Langan's story is testament to the universality of friendship and humanity against all the odds...