A Cup of Friendship By Deborah Rodriguez

A Cup of Friendship is a wonderful book about an American women named Sunny who has come to Afghanistan, Kabul specifically and opened a coffee shop. Working along side Afghans, Sunny learns to toe the line between her American ways and respecting Afghan traditions.

A colorful cast of characters are introduced to you through the doors of the coffee shop each one of them opening themselves up to growing and learning about love, life and themselves during their time in the coffee shop. Working alongside Sunny in the cafe there is a maternal older women name Halajan who has lived through several different regimens and knows the peace Kabul could have if the Taliban were not in charge, everyday she hopes for   tradition to meet modern half way so she can marry the love of her life. Right now she as to settle for hiding this modern romance from her ultra traditional son Ahmet who unbeknownst to her is facing his own religious doubts and is having a struggle in himself to practice the Love the Koran teaches but not the hate that is reflected in his country.

Then into the cafe comes Isabel, a British journalist who has followed a risky story to Kabul and is searching for meaning and purpose in her life after a traumatic past; Jack, who left his family in Michigan to earn "danger pay" as a consultant but he doesn't know if the marriage he left behind is worth returning for; and then there is Candace, a wealthy, well-connected American who wants to help so badly that she allows her judgment to be clouded and puts herself in harms way.

The cafe is changed when a young Afghan women with beautiful green eyes named Yazmina is brought in after being kidnapped from her home to pay a debt and then left on a city street when her captors find she is pregnant from her beloved husband who died in violence after conception; leaving her terrified and alone. Sunny wants to help and asks Yazmina to live and work in the cafe but Sunny's American ways prevents her from seeing their danger of having an unmarried women with child in her home and its not until later everyone finds out just how much her secrets could put all their lives at risk.

As this group works and lives together they find that there is more to one another then meets the eye, they will form an unlikely friendship that will change their lives and hopefully one day the entire country. Full of friendship, love and purpose this book will open your eyes to a whole new culture and not just the injustice of it but the beauty of it as well. A cup of Friendship is a remarkable story about what is possible when people rise up for change, whether its is changing one life, dozens or thousands   this book is a book that celebrates new and old as one, rising up against oppression and hate. In one word I found this book to be inspiring.