It is based on true stories that Shah collected on his travels after secretly entering Afghanistan at the height of the hostilities, to spend time with the Afghan resistance, and find out first-hand what life was like in his ancestral homeland.

"[3] Centering on a resistance leader nicknamed "The Eagle", the story also tells of a legendary horde of gold that once belonged to the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Durrani, that had been located and must be kept secret from the Russian invaders.

"[1] Though generally positive about the Kara Kush, Hirsh does point out what she perceives as three flaws in the work: Firstly, that Shah writes with the benefit of hindsight; that he simplifies and dismisses pressures that led up to the war and the Russian invasion.

"[5] In The New York Times, author and retired columnist, C. L. Sulzberger expresses his difficulty as a reader in separating his literary judgement of the work, which he describes as "a bad novel", from the plight and "flamboyant heroism" of the Afghan people which the book presents.

[3] He adds that there is plenty of "action and movement" in the novel, and that the work presents a "rich tapestry", but concludes that the language employed is not up to the task, and that although it may be "a compendium of Pathan tales suitable to the storyteller's bazaar at Peshawar [...] it is not a novel.

"[3] Writing for the Pakistani Dawn newspaper, Nasser Yousaf states that Kara Kush provides "a fulfilling reading into the Afghan history, culture, geography and ethnology as the writer takes his readers on a tour de force of the snow–covered mountains, parched deserts, fecund vineyards and orchards, dense woods and dirt tracks of a country at war with a super power.