Did Colette not understand that falling in love was forbidden?

Kabul, 1998

Colette takes a job teaching French to Afghan men in Kabul. She meets Abdul Hannan, a handsome and courteous man and her best pupil, who also happens to be a Taliban Commander’s son.

Despite the Islamist regime, Colette and Abdul grow close and fall in love, which inevitably causes drama.

Bedfordshire, 1999

Pursued by terrorist threat, Colette goes home to rural Bedfordshire. With the help of her friend Davina, a florist in a dynamic London flower company, Colette starts a new life. But she cannot forget who she left behind in Kabul, nor will the Taliban let her.

When Gilbert, the lodger, steals her Kabul story for his own aggrandisement, she quickly learns that one should not provoke a Taliban Commander.

Barbara Kastelin was brought up in Switzerland. She studied copywriting and design at the New School in New York, worked for the UN Secretary-General and returned to advertising at Proctor & Gamble in Geneva. She married a British diplomat and has two daughters and grandchildren. Barbara is the author of The Parrot Tree, When Snow Fell, Hotel Belvedere and three collections of short stories. She is based in Bedford.