Jamil Jan Kochai

No matter where he resides, for Jamil Jan Kochai, Logar will always be home. And it is Logar that he returns to for a second time in his award-winning short story collection "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak." This book carries readers through Afghanistan with beautifully complex stories of multidimensional family lines and friendships that must find a way to breathe between the lines of war.

Through magical realism, Kochai writes of a young man unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy as he plays a game of Call of Duty. And a teacher who suddenly morphs into a monkey after losing his connection to his religion. We also talk about his favorite MF Doom album and if he dons his National Book Award Finalist medallion as he shops for eggs at the local grocery store.