When I leafed through this it seemed vaguely interesting. By that I mean that I thought it might be good (like Joe Sacco's books) but could also be a bit boring... And wow, was I wrong! It is so MUCH more compelling to read than what I imagined while at the same time not really being the kind of book that has the "typical" sources of drama and excitement. The premise is even less (potentially) interesting than I thought: a photographer is invited to travel along and document (photographically) a trip into Afghanistan (during the war against the Russians in the 1980s) with a group of doctors (Medecins sans Frontieres) on a humanitarian mission. That's it. He's part of the trip, they walk a lot, set up medical stations in different places (to treat locals with all sorts of things including regular ailments, accidents, and also war-related wounds), and they all head back. It doesn't quite turn out that way - but sort of mostly, yes.

I don't know why I just swallowed it all up, poring over the pictures, wondering what's happened to all the people that appear (there's a nice "coda" at the end for many of them), and just being impressed by how much I learned about Afghan people (in the 1980s) - their culture, customs, and social rules. The saddest thing is that this takes place in the 80s! And things won't get much better for the Afghans over the following decades - well sort of, but definitely not so good after 9/11. Sigh.

It's an amazing read and seems, at times, almost like reading about life on another planet.