Travels in an Awakening Country Accompanying a friend on her return to Afghanistan after decades spent in exile, Roger Willemsen – an author, journalist and television presenter – sees the destruction wrought by 30 years of conflict. Offering an insight into the lives of ordinary Afghans – the cinema owners and women teachers in the cities, the nomads in the countryside, as well as returning exiles – Roger Willemsen shows a people more complex than Western stereotypes suggest, a people who, after years of horrendous suffering and deprivation, are struggling to maintain themselves, their proud history, and their rich culture.