SILENT HEARTS

For fans of A Thousand Splendid Suns, a stirring novel set in Kabul, following the unlikely friendship of two women - an American aid worker and her Pakistani interpreter - caught in the crossroads of history.

Liv and her husband leave the United States to work at an NGO in Kabul in the days after 9/11. Liv is drawn further into the local culture., as her husband, a disappointed academic, loses touch with the people he is supposed to be helping.

Farida is a beautiful and well educated Pakistani girl whose family is down on their luck. Her father essentially sells her off to the son of a rich Afghani family who are returning to Kabul from Pakistan. Despite the repressive household and particularly, the burqa she must wear, Farida falls in love with her husband and comes to appreciate the women around her. She becomes interpreter for Liv and her husband and a bond grows between the women - despite their very different worlds and the suspicion and violence that bubbles beneath the surface of life in the city.

This is an portrayal of resilient women, the conflicts of war and the impossible choices they confront - with a thriller like ending.

Like Khaled Hosseini Florio transports readers to Afghanistan, exposing them to the war-tormented country's poverty, to its displaced people, and the tensions from the unwanted arrival of the Americans. At the same time, Gwen impels readers to see the beauty that exists in pockets throughout Kabul - its colorful markets, the mouthwatering food, and the resilient women.

Florio reveals the stark reality of Afghani women who must be obedient to their fathers, husbands, and brothers.

Gwen Florio has reported from Iraq and Somalia and was in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002. Her reportage on the sexual assaults at the University of Montana was frequently cited by Jon Krakauer, author of Missoula.

Florio has published a mystery detective series with indie presses. Her first novel Montana won the High Plains Book Award and the Pinckley Prize for debut crime fiction. Her other books also earned rave reviews from The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus. One of Gwen's short stories was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Gwen Florio grew up in a 250-year-old farmhouse on a wildlife refuge in Delaware and now lives in Montana. Currently the city editor for the Missoulian, Gwen has reported on the Columbine High School shooting and from conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia. In 2013, her novel Montana, won the High Plains Book Award and the Pinckley Prize for debut crime fiction.