The Homeless Afghan

About the Book

The Homeless Afghan is the first novel by Mohammad Marouf Sharifi. It tells the story of Arib, a young boy from Kapisa Province who was born during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. He grew up amidst war and penetrated through walls of misfortunate to save himself. The story is full of tumultuous events, from the invasion of the Russians to the movements of refugees abroad, the mujahidin government, the Afghan civil war, and the rise of the Taliban. It narrates the Afghan lifestyle in Pakistan and Iran and Arib’s and other youths’ crossing of borders to Turkey and European countries. Sharifi considers The Homeless Afghan to be a story that applies to millions of children in the less developed countries, or at least to the thousands of children in Afghanistan.

About the Author

Mohammad Marouf Sharif was born in January 20, 1980, in Afghanistan. After graduation from Abu Hanifa High School in 1998, he continued his lessons under the Taliban’s harsh rules in Kabul privately and studied Sharia law for his undergraduate degree. In 2011, he enrolled at the Islamic Azad University for his master’s degree in political sciences. After the collapse of the Taliban regime led by the USA and its allies, he became a combat interpreter for the US military forces and fought the War on Terror against international terrorists and remaining Taliban. He was the go-to interpreter for the units that he worked with, and then served the US Army as a cultural advisor and a construction contractor. In 2015, he was issued a special immigrant visa at the US Embassy in Kabul and entered the US.