Review of “Midnight Collector” (2025)
by Martina Häusler for the Borromeo Association
Authentic picture of life in a small village in Afghanistan through the ages.
Musa can only move by crawling due to a deformity in her legs. For the villagers he is therefore an outsider, is ridiculed and, if a misfortune occurs in his presence, is associated with it and avoided. Only the beautiful Muness is friendly to him and praises him for his efficiency and courage, but she drowns in the fairy spring. After his father's accidental death, Musa cultivates a small field to grow Sultana for himself and his mother. However, as the drought worsens, this source of income disappears and Musa hears someone selling bones to the Taliban in a shop. From then on he goes to the cemetery under the cover of darkness to clear out old graves. This goes well for a while, but Musa begins to have doubts. He tells the dealer that he will no longer supply bones, thereby signing his death warrant. In his second novel, published for the first time in German translation, the author, who was born in Afghanistan in 1975, links Afghan history between the early 1970s and 2001 with the harsh fate of his protagonist. The linguistically very appealing book is highly recommended.
