Book Synopsis
In an Afghan village, a boy learns his letters under a mullah’s stick and dreams of a life free of the Taliban; in Virginia, a cadet learns to read a map and lead a platoon into combat. Years later, on a wind-scoured ridgeline overlooking Zabul Province, helicopters roaring overhead, Afghan interpreter Abdulhaq Sodais and U.S. Army Lieutenant Spencer Sullivan must learn to trust each other if they hope to survive.
In 2021, when the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan, the Taliban reassert their rule, disappearing, torturing, and killing U.S. collaborators, including Abdulhaq’s fellow interpreters. Yet Abdulhaq’s applications for asylum in America are repeatedly denied.
With the Taliban closing in, Abdulhaq embarks on a cross-continental trek toward freedom. Caught up in the global refugee crisis, Abdulhaq must surrender himself to safehouses and human smugglers while Spencer fights his own war back in the U.S. to honor America’s promise.
Not Our Problem, a war memoir and refugee story revealed in alternating voices, follows an Afghan refugee and an American soldier across borders and continents, tracing the long distance between a promise and its keeping—interrogating a world in crisis while celebrating how friendship can outlast the war that created it.
Why we wrote the book
After years of trying to help his former interpreters gain asylum in the United States, Spencer received a phone call letting him know that one of his interpreters from his combat deployment to Afghanistan, Sayed, had been murdered by the Taliban. Sayed was one of countless victims of the Taliban’s revenge killings. They targeted Afghans who chose to support U.S. and NATO forces during the twenty-year-long conflict. Interpreters were the highest prized targets due to their essential role on the battlefield.
Racked with guilt and fear, Spencer tried to contact his other interpreter and friend, Abdulhaq, but received no response. Eighteen months later, Abdulhaq re-emerged in Germany. He had fled his home country as a refugee in order to survive.
Abdulhaq was denied his initial bid for asylum there. He appealed his case, and reconnected with his old wartime friend Spencer for help. They began recording Abdulhaq’s life story, hoping that a clear depiction of the horrors he had endured could positively influence his appeal.
The story took shape over hundreds of phone calls, countless hours of late-night writing, and multiple trips across the Atlantic. It soon became clear that the story was a gateway for other refugees, other Afghans, and other interpreters left behind in the wake of America’s longest war to have their own voices represented on a global stage.
The book was originally a meditation on the refugee experience, but in 2021 with the Taliban quickly regaining control of Afghanistan, Spencer and Abdulhaq’s story began to garner media attention. The Associated Press, CNN, FOX, the LA Times, and the Huff Post all ran stories on the them, reaching worldwide syndication in over 400 different publications in the US, Europe, and Asia.
The feedback was clear- the story was as much about the relationship between American service members and their Afghan wartime allies as it was about the global refugee crisis. Spencer and Abdulhaq pivoted the manuscript, and after five long years, they completed the book.
Not Our Problem will be released on April 21st, 2026. Pre-orders are currently available.