This profile of the pseudonymous Sultan Khan, proprietor of a Kabul bookstore whose passionately liberal ideas about literature and freedom to read are at odds with his traditional ones about the place of women, has been an international bestseller. It has also been the subject of controversy, as the actual bookseller in question--a man named Shah Mohammed Rais, took offence at his portrayal, calling it libel and invasion of privacy, and sought legal reparations from the author, who lived with the Rais family for four months in Kabul in 2002.