Writing Wrongs

Journalists covering devastated corners of the globe are often torn between the desire to stand back and observe or to jump in and help. After three months reporting on the fall of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, National Public Radio's Kandahar correspondent, Sarah Chayes, had had enough of watching the broken country stagger to its feet and decided to lend a hand. Donning the turban and long tunic of Kandahari men (the better to escape attention), she plunged into a new life helping the people of her adopted home. The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban is her riveting...