Bestselling author David Raeburn Finn chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about his book “The Leopard’s Daughter: A Pukhtun Story.”
He grew up in a military family. His father volunteered in WWII serving with the Canadian Army in the UK and Europe. His uncle served in Wartime Ferry Command and then, for forty years, with the CIA. After taking a few degrees in Canada then the UK he lectured in Philosophy in Canadian universities before opening a contracting concern, an import business, and eventually joining a highly successful boutique hedge fund.
He has sixteen grandchildren all of whom are gradually whipping themselves into shape. He speaks broken French and German and even more broken Russian and Pashto. His ambitions include fluency in Russian and Pashto before moving on to Mandarin and Farsi. He is a full-time caregiver to his wife. He wishes he still played the cello.
Book Description
Mohammed, a skilled, politically naïve Denver surgeon of Pashtun descent joins US Special Forces as a front-line medic in Afghanistan. His Muslim faith and background have him on a secret CIA watch list dubbed OWL (Others Watch List). Alerted by OWL, his Afghan base commander’s suspicions become deranged as Mohammed converses and prays with, then physically defends Afghan civilian villagers against murderous company soldiers.
Mohammed survives a cross-border ambush unaware it targetted him. A passing Pashtun family is swept up and fights with him. His surgery saves Shahay, a knife-wielding widow of the family who finishes two ambushers before suffering an arterial slash. Shahay’s brother invites Mohammed to their Bajaur home to oversee her recovery.
Welcomed as an esteemed guest, he is drawn to her and her family. His visit unknowingly sets in motion a CIA private contractor operation aimed at discovering Mohammed’s true allegiance. The operatives’ task, to discover Mohammed’s motives, brings horror to her family and gruesome deaths to Bajaur. The deaths will not be forgiven …
‘The Leopard’s Daughter: A Pukhtun Story’ has been a big hit with readers. What was your inspiration for this transformative and riveting story?
I began the story in 2009. I saw two conflicts. First, Between 2001 and 2010 the Western press identified the ‘terrorists’ in Afghanistan with Taliban Pashtuns. But Taliban interests conducted suicide bombings against Pashtun tribes. If Pashtuns were all terrorists, why would terrorists bomb them? Secondly, the West aimed to subdue its foes with money and military violence. Afghans wanted respect and peace.
In this amazing read, you take readers into the War in Afghanistan, which very much becomes a character in ‘The Leopard’s Daughter: A Pukhtun Story.’ What is it about this war, and the people of Afghanistan that you find so compelling?
War is always compelling to the son of a soldier. But this war pitched rich against poor, technology against mud huts, white against brown, B52s against apple orchards.
First, Afghans fought wars against Greeks, Persians, Mongols, British, Soviets, and American-led Western armies. Afghans have lost battles and survived all wars. The disparate peoples of Afghanistan were brought together to defeat the West through a collective patience and wisdom forged over centuries. Their creature simplicity, their shared faith, the celebration of their guests, their provision of safety to the needy, their defending to the death family, and tribal honour, all of these merit respect.
Secondly, the US had CIA SAD (Special Activities Division) operatives in Afghanistan from 1997 working against the Taliban. It was planning the full-on invasion already in March 2001, well before 9/11. So 9/11 was BS. The US invaded largely on the basis of Russian geotechnical estimates of Afghanistan’s mineral assets in the trillions.
The upshot was that the Afghan war pitched liars against innocents.
Mohammed, your protagonist, is a multifaceted character who really draws readers into the story. In this book, your ability to create brilliant characters really comes through. How did you develop this really compelling character? Also, what is one of your keys to developing characters in general?
Mohammed isn’t a one off. He is the best of America, politically naïve, generous in spirit and in skill, ready and willing to face danger, someone who might be any American, distinguished only by being of Pashtun descent and a follower of Islam.
Mohammed’s character was dictated by the reality of Shahay, the Leopard’s Daughter, the woman he comes to love. She is all Pashtuns: She lives amongst peoples who can only doubt an America which has brought an unbidden, undeserved chaos and death. She is introduced as a widow with a child, fighting for her life one moment only to be mortally wounded the next; she is the daughter of a conservative Pashtun Muslim father who would not entertain as his daughter’s suitor a non-believer, a man without personal merit, a man without Pashtun credentials. ‘Mohammed’, the character, needed to meet Shahay’s reality.
The key to character development, following Strasberg, is to create a reality, and, following Stanislavski, to inhabit the characters of that reality.
Mohammed and Shahay embark on an epic, yet challenging romance. What was the inspiration for this part of this powerful story?
I was inspired by the realities of war, medicine, and intercultural conflict. How might two people, strangers to one another, survive to be bound ever more closely together through combat and wounds, in a culture in which family honour is insulted by a guest’s speech or gesture expressing overfamiliarity
with a daughter, in the face of institutional racism and abuse, torture, the opportunistic predation in war and the persecution of innocence.
While writing ‘The Leopard’s Daughter: A Pukhtun Story’ did you learn anything new about yourself?
I confirmed that while I might imagine a story, the telling of it needed form and architecture welcoming to readers. I knew next to nothing of these things. I’m grateful to Cornerstones Literary Agency and the Literary Consultancy and their brilliant editors for providing me with what amounted to a course on creative writing.
I am sure your fans are wondering, so I am going to ask – do you have another book in the works you can tell us about?
A famous historical incident involving an innocent young woman and a wanted criminal contains an enduring mystery. The mystery is at the heart of my next book.
“The Leopard’s Daughter: A Pukhtun Story” is available on Amazon by clicking here.
