The Interpreter: Do It With Hoooah

Shah Sight
‎Rebecka Vigus, Welcome to our show, we are pleased to have you with us, let me tell you that we are also honoured to have you as a member on this site. I know you read my book, The Interpreter, and you left a brilliant review on Amazon, there must have been something that dragged you to it, can you tell us what was it that made you want to read this book?






Rebecka Vigus Honestly it was e-mailing back and forth with you on LinkedIn that first go me interested. Then I visited your website to find more information. I am a firm believer in seeking information. I knew little about Afghanistan as a country. I really wanted to see it through the eyes of someone who had lived there.



Rebecka Vigus got* me interested


Shah Sight Ok, thanks, interesting, and then you got the book, and started reading it, what did you really like about the book, and what made you think, oh I don't like this bit or that bit, honestly, we want to know?



Rebecka Vigus I liked that I felt as though I was traveling with the main character. I could feel his fear in the firefight and see his pain at the destruction of the villages around him. He seemed real, human, and someone I could identify with. He's the type of character that if you met him in life, you'd want to have dinner with him and talk to him about how you could help make a difference.


Shah Sight Thanks, so you seem to have liked the main character, do you still remember his name, or one of his fellow interpreters' name, or the place he worked, although you don't have to remember, just in case?



Rebecka Vigus
I remember his name, just not how to spell it and I don't have the book with me to check. I know they worked in Helmand a city I'd never heard of before this book. I also remember an interpreter taking clothing and shoes to school children. I could not decide if they were brave or just tempting the fates when they went to visit their families. I understand wanting to be with family. I get they were hoping to give their lives something normal, I just am not sure I'd ever be brave enough to attempt getting to my family knowing that my fate would be suffering and death if I were caught.



Rebecka Vigus Sabir? I believe was his name.


Shah Sight Oh, sweetheart, you said it, Shabir, correct, and Helmand, totally true, thanks for that. Why do you think you liked the bad guy, the Taliban commander, in the book, he is a bad guy?



Rebecka Vigus
I didn't. I so wanted them to capture him. He was remorseless and everything I think of as a terrorist. He was greedy and did not care who got in his way. I think Shabir was the thorn in his side and even more so after he shot the commander. The Taliban commander is every bad man in the history of the world. Rape, pillage, and plunder to fill his own coffers with the implied dare; 'Catch me if you can.' He was a very well developed character.


Shah Sight Thank you, Rebecka, did you laugh at points throughout the book, you may want to tell us, and also what was the saddest part of the book for you?



Rebecka Vigus There were times when I could share the humor of the men as they joked with each other. I saw it as a way to relieve stress for them. The saddest part of the book that's hard. I think it was probably the new interpreter that helped distribute the clothing and got to see his younger siblings at the school. Then being captured and killed. I also felt deeply Shabir's missing his own family.


Shah Sight Honey, you are getting me back to the story, sorry that this interview can be a bit longer, hope we are not taking a lot of your time, tell us something about the action, what was it that you think was entertaining in terms of action, I will ask you about the thrill next?



Rebecka Vigus The action I could sense the tension, smell the fear, and feel the dirt kicked up by the bullets. It was as if I was there with them. Not knowing where the threat would come from made it all more real when it actually happened. I cannot imagine hiding behind crumbling walls, or inside a Humvee waiting for it all to be over.


Shah Sight I see, thanks a lot, do you think there was an unwanted lover in the story who came to Shabir from time to time, do you remember anything about her?



Rebecka Vigus The woman of his dreams. Yes, I remember her. I wonder if he ever found her once he left his position in the trenches?? I think he needed to believe in a future and she represented that to him. While she seemed unwanted at times, I think she was also something to hang onto from a life he'd had before. Without dreams we have nothing.


Shah Sight Thanks, Rebecka, what do you think of the soldiers who Shabir worked for as an interpreter, and the Taliban who fought against them?



Rebecka Vigus
Let me say first, that I hate war. As to the soldiers Shabir worked with I believe they were making an effort to help the Afghani people by ridding them of the Taliban. The Taliban remind me of outdated warlords still believing in the system that allows for if I see it and want it I take it. They are about a century or two out of touch. If they can keep the people in fear and uneducated they can prevail. It's part of the reason they burn schools. They are uneducated ruffians themselves.


Shah Sight Rebecka, do you want to say something to those who may want to read the interpreter, what should they expect to learn from this book about Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the war in Afghanistan?



Rebecka Vigus Read it with an open mind. It is a work of fiction, it will deliver a good story. Shah has well developed characters that make it seem real. Know that the Taliban is worse than even mainstream media allows us to know. But most of all enjoy the book.


Shah Sight Thank you, we all should have a lovely friend like you in our life, then we have every joy with that as well, it was a pleasure to be with you on this show, see you soon.



Rebecka Vigus You are most welcome. Thank you for the opportunity.

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Shah Sight http://www.amazon.com/Interpreter-Special-Military-Version-ebook/dp/B00652BE7U/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_2

The Interpreter - Special Military Versionwww.amazon.com
One morning when Shabir Khan wakes up, he finds himself in a military camp, in Helmand. What did bring him there, when his parents lived in Moscow and his sisters and brother lived in Zurich? Shabir Khan studied and he joined a Karate club in Kabul, so what happened th...