The Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya
By Asne Seierstad
Translated by Nadia Christensen
Virago £14.99, 352 pages
FT bookshop price: £11.99

Asne Seierstad was propelled from freelance obscurity to global fame with The Bookseller of Kabul (2003). In it she recounts the story of the family of Shah Muhammad Rais, whose calling and education as a bookseller saw him courageously carry on his trade through communism and Talibanism. It did not, however, prevent him from treating his wife and daughters (with whom Seierstad lived) as chattels, and covering up an “honour killing” of a relative for an affair. The book was a huge success, although Seierstad was hounded by the bookseller and by some in the west, who accused her of distortion and cultural insensitivity.