the main characters and their lives. Neoliberalism has been defined as the:

political economic paradigm of our time − it refers to the policies and processes whereby a relative handful of private interests are permitted to control as much as possible of social life in order to maximise their personal profit (Chomsky, 1998, p1)

Berlant on the other hand focused on the idea of Cruel Optimism which is “the condition of maintaining an attachment to a problematic object in advance of its loss” (Berlant, 2006, p.21). Berlant’s theories can be applied to The Bookseller of Kabul as the novel explores these key ideas in greater detail via characters such as Sultan who try to control his financial wealth by dominating and hiding his wealth from others. Matinuddin further states that: