Taleban book tops US list

The film Kandahar is attracting strong interest

Books about the Middle East and Afghanistan are continuing to attract strong reader interest in the West with a volume about the Taleban topping the best-seller lists for non-fiction in the US.

Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid spent 21 years researching and writing his book, called Taliban - Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.

Just 3,000 copies were published last year in London, but by 11 September 2001, more than 350,000 copies had been published in the US.

In the next two years we will see a whole raft of titles being promoted heavily on themes previously not though to be interesting

Joel Rickett, The Bookseller

Demand for the book has increased in the UK as well, with 80,000 paperback copies released on Monday.

"My life has changed. This is a completely different league," said Rashid.

Vivid account

"It was difficult because the Taleban is not a very interesting subject and in 1998 there was a recession in the publishing industry and not much demand for a serious book," he added.

Books about global politics are in the best seller lists

The book's fortunes were altered after it was picked up by the influential Yale University Press and it has now been translated into nine languages.

It gives a vivid account of the Taleban, based on first-hand interviews and meetings, as well as widespread travel over many years to Afghanistan and its neighbours.

"I really got down to writing it in 1998 when I realised no one knew anything about the Taleban and the world was ignoring the plight of the Afghans," he said.

'Obscure titles'

"I thought the book would bring them some attention."

In the UK and US, books on politics and the Middle East situation continue to perform strongly.

Yossef Bodansky's book Bin Laden is number two in the US best seller lists for paperback non-fiction titles.

BBC arts correspondent David Sillito said "obscure titles have been dusted off and placed on the best-seller stands".

"People have developed a taste for all things to do with Afghan politics, chemical warfare and global politics," he said.

The interest in such topics is not reserved just to books - the film Kandahar, set in Afghanistan, has attracted strong interest at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), in London, where it is to be screened.

"This is a film about war, about women and about the Taleban situation," David Sillito added.

'Re-jacketed'

"It is the most extraordinary contemporary film."

The appetite for such subject matter is not set to be satisfied in the near future, according to some industry pundits.

Joel Rickett, of The Bookseller, said: "Tiny titles, obscure academic studies of the oil industry or Middle East have been re-jacketed and put out there and started to sell.

"In the next two years we will see a whole raft of titles coming into the shops and being promoted heavily on themes previously not though to be interesting."

Kandahar opens at the ICA on 15 November.