Malala’s story is a rather eye-popping account of what it is like to face down the Taliban in person. She grew up in a remote town in Pakistan, attending school in a society that was sometimes outright hostile to the notion of girls’ education. Just about the time that she graduated from primary to high school, the Taliban began staking out ground in her town - first via a media-based “hearts-and-minds” campaign, and eventually with guns and brutal violence. Throughout it all, she and her father were courageous, outspoken voices for girls’ education, despite tremendous personal risk. Ultimately she paid an unimaginable price - a gunman stopped her bus on the way home and shot her at point-blank range, nearly killing her and injuring two of her classmates. It’s difficult to understate her bravery and determination. Placed in similar circumstances, who among us can honestly say we’d have done the same thing?

It is somewhat interesting to think about the various voices speaking through this narrative, because Malala did not write the book on her own - rather, she wrote it with the help of a journalist. Moreover, this work is a memoir for a young woman with obvious personal and political overtones. So it’s difficult to get an exact handle on how some of the key points in the narrative actually happened. I was especially curious as to how she and her father decided to continue speaking out for girls’ education despite the tremendous personal risk involved. It’s almost impossible to imagine making that decision, or being a parent who does not at minimum worry about the implications of such a course. I wanted to know more about how they decided to go through with it - or was it rather something they never questioned? The narrative really skims over this issue, presenting it as a given fact.

I also appreciated the historical and background information about Pakistan, most of which I didn’t know. Of particular interest is Malala’s description of creeping Talibanization, written in retrospect but from the eyes of someone who had seen it happen. It’s more than a little chilling.

Malala’s story is as inspiring as it is difficult to imagine, and I think well worth exploring. She and her family have certainly gone through quite a lot, and we can only hope that there are many more people like them, staking out their own courageous voices wherever they are.