Complete press release
Lost Decency: The Gilded Cages and the Search for Home, by Afghan American author Atta Arghandiwal, is available to readers, educators, libraries, cultural institutions, and media seeking a deeply personal account of Afghanistan, exile, and the moral work of remembering.
The book connects Afghanistan's political rupture with its human cost. Through family memory, displacement, and the search for home, Arghandiwal asks what people carry when a country changes around them - and what dignity and responsibility can preserve after familiar structures are gone.
Arghandiwal left Afghanistan in August 1980 after the political rupture that followed the 1978 coup and the Soviet invasion. After living as a refugee in Germany, he arrived in the United States in December 1981 with basic English and $10. He began as a bank teller and built a 29-year career in banking, eventually rising to Senior Vice President and Regional Manager. That journey of loss, rebuilding, and responsibility informs the moral perspective of the book.
Lost Decency was named a 2012 Foreword INDIES finalist in Autobiography & Memoir and a 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award finalist for the Bill Fisher Best First Book - Nonfiction.
Themes for readers, classrooms, and public conversation
- Afghanistan before and after political rupture.
- The human and family consequences of exile.
- Memory as a form of responsibility, not nostalgia alone.
- The search for home across countries, institutions, and generations.
- Dignity, moral choice, and the long work of rebuilding a life.
A starting point for serious discussion
The book can anchor author conversations, university and library programs, Afghan diaspora events, book-club discussions, and interviews about Afghanistan, exile, memory, and civic responsibility. AttaMoves welcomes inquiries from journalists, educators, cultural institutions, libraries, and community organizations.
Availability
The current edition is available through Amazon, Books2Read, Vivlio, and Smashwords. Current retailer links are collected on the official AttaMoves book page.
Why this book remains relevant
Lost Decency gives journalists, educators, students, libraries, cultural institutions, and book groups a grounded starting point for conversations about Afghanistan, displacement, moral memory, family responsibility, and the long work of rebuilding. It is not presented as a newly published book; this release introduces its current edition and continuing relevance to new audiences.
About the author
For editors and producers
- Interview Atta about Afghanistan before and after political rupture.
- Discuss exile, family memory, moral responsibility, and the search for home.
- Consider an author conversation for a university, library, cultural institution, or book group.
- Reference the book's two finalist recognitions using the exact wording in this release.
End of release
