Kabul Beauty School and The Red Leather Diary

Deborah Rodriguez and Lily Koppel participated in a discussion of their respective books, Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil and

The Red Leather Diary. After their discussion, they responded to audience members' questions. Bich Minh Nguyen moderated.

Kabul is about Rodriguez’s efforts to help establish a beauty school in

war-torn Afghanistan after the Taliban were driven out.

Diary came about when Koppel discovered in a New York City dumpster the 1930s diary of a young woman, Florence, who kept a daily journal between the ages of 14 and 19. Koppel became fascinated by Florence, tracked her down, interviewed her, and interwove Florence’s life story into excerpt’s from the diary. close