The Punishment of Virtue: Press reviews

‘A devastating indictment of the contradictions of US policy in Afghanistan by an extremely courageous woman’ and ‘the inside story on Afghanistan after the Taliban by someone who knows and cares’

Christina Lamb

‘One of the most striking accounts of the “War on Terror.”’

Libby Purvis

‘Sarah Chayes has written what will undoubtedly be the definitive account of the fall of the Taliban.’

Sebastian Junger

‘The most gripping, sensitive, funny, perceptive and beautifully written book you will ever read on Afghanistan, US policy and nation building…Sarah Chayes gets to grips with warlords, drug lords and American Special Forces in a rumbustious, achingly funny, beautiful written book. It reminds me of Swift's Gulliver’s Travels, except this is a romp through the post 911 world. Chayes makes history, politics and war more of a pleasure to read about than anything I have yet read…This is the best book to have come out of Afghanistan since 9/11…Sarah Chayes should be nominated as the next US Secretary of State.’

Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban

‘Astute and dedicated… a gutsy, outspoken proselytiser armed with the tenaciousness of a born reporter, she has often stuck her nose in where few foreigners would dare. Her book intimately chronicles the power struggle… and offers a deeply disquieting insight into the failures of American nation building.’

Sunday Times

‘Eschewing the journalistic pack to live among the people, Chayes learns the importance of gestures, tribal loyalties and the history behind the politics….In this passionate and clever account of her infuriated enchantment with “irrisistable” Kandahar, she charts both her insights and errors. The frame and force of her narrative come from a lament for her friend Muhammed Akrem Khakrezwal, the most able public official she knew, “bar none”. '

Guardian

'Her astute new book looks at the rot at the heart of the new regime, and the fatal flaws in the US’s peace-keeping and rebuilding strategies.'

FT

‘I would strongly recommend this thought-provoking and salutary book, both for those who have been involved in Afghanistan for many years and for those who have never been there at all.'

Literary Review

'An engrossing account…Chayes’s ground reporting in Kandahar and Kabul is excellent…Living in Kandahar nearly continuously since 2001, Chayes gained an unparalleled understanding of southern Afghanistan, one of the most important yet least understood fronts in the war on terrorism. In elegant and incisive prose, she brings to life the region’s rich history, complex politics and proud ethnic Pashtun tribesmen…If in the end, the American effort in southern Afghanistan fails, this important and insightful book will explain why.'

New York Times

'Sharply observed, fearlessly told…That sense of outrage courses through the book, and by the time Chayes is done, many readers will feel the same way.'

Washington Post