Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The first story in Jamil John

Kochai's new short story collection is called Playing Metal Gear Solid 5, The Phantom Pain.

And I remember reading it when it was first published in The New Yorker because I, too,

who have big thought about the Metal Gear franchise and knew exactly what he was talking about

when he referred to names like Revolver Acelot and Big Boss in the story.

But the story is about Afghanistan.

Depicted in a way once or twice removed, a figment of someone else's memory or imagination.

The full collection is called The Haunting of Haji Hotak, and Kuchai talk to NPR's R. Shapiro

about being displaced from Afghanistan.

And they get into this interesting discussion about balancing the focus on the Afghan characters,

in spite of them being haunted by invading Soviet and American forces.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Years ago, the author Jamil John Kuchai saw a satirical headline in The Onion.

It read, FBI counterterrorism agent wistfully recalls watching 20-year-old

Muslim American grow up. I thought it was totally funny, but also like oddly endearing.

That joke gave him the premise for the title story in his new book, The Haunting of Haji

Hothok and other stories. I was thinking about this, and I was sort of watching him watch the family.

That's where sort of the central relationship of the story sort of builds up as this narrator

...