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Little Women of Baghlan is a book on Afghanistan women in the 1960’s. Author Susan Fox shares the story of an American Peace Corps Volunteer working at a nursing school for women in rural Afghanistan before the Taliban.

The true account of an ordinary young woman who answers the call to service and adventure, Jo Carter’s story rivals the intrigue and suspense of any novel, unfolding against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1960s: Civil Rights, Vietnam, the Peace Corps, and a country at the crossroads of China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran.

Jo deploys to Afghanistan 1968, before the Russians or the Taliban. She doesn’t bring much: a few clothes, a shortwave radio, and a crisp, new diary. Over the next two years Jo writes about her nursing school, and her young students, the hospital without running water, the Afghan neighbors peeking over the compound wall, the juie puppy she adopts, the hardships, friendships, parties, and eventually, the Soviet presence within the country. A half century later, her words are a window to the past—when Afghanistan was on the cusp of becoming a modern nation. That country is gone, and there is little evidence to indicate such a time or place ever existed.

Author Susan Fox lives along the Kankakee River in Momence, Illinois—a small town of 3,000, not counting the duck population. “Little Women of Baghlan” is her first book, and was named as a finalist for Book of the Year in nonfiction by the Chicago Writers Association.

Susan holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois, a nursing degree, and a certificate in technical writing from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. She has worked as a registered nurse most of her life, and has worked as a technical writer for a consulting firm in the Chicago area. Currently, she serves on the Human Rights Committee for Good Shepherd Manor in Momence, and is a member of the River Valley Wind Ensemble.

When she is not writing, Susan divides her time between her six grandchildren, her husband Ken, and her clarinet.