Play Book Tag discussion

4.5 stars

This book tells the stories of two women in Afghanistan. Rahima and Shekiba. Rahima lives in the present-day and after a few years of living as a boy (not uncommon for a family with no sons), she is still only 13(?) when she is “sold” to a warlord as his 4th wife to pay her father’s debts (along with her two slightly older sisters, also sold to the warlords’ family as wives).

Rahima’s hunchbacked aunt has been telling Rahima and her sisters the story of their ancestor, Shekiba, who lived in the early 20th century. Shekiba lost her family to cholera at a young age and wanted to take care of herself, but she wasn’t allowed. As she did not get along with her extended family, they gave her to another family as a housekeeper, but she got into trouble and was sent away from there, as well…

This was really good. I am always more interested in a woman’s point of view in these kinds of books. Of course, there were some horrible things that happened in the book! I was interested in both stories, so switching back and forth didn’t bother me (it was clearly marked at the beginning of each chapter whom we were following). I was a bit appalled at how little seemed to have changed between the two time frames in the book, at least for women. The end was left just a little bit open, so that I’d love to read a sequel. This was the author’s debut novel and I do hope to read her next book, as well.

Hum....sounds interesting. Will need to move up the TBR pile :-)

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found the historical aspects of this book utterly fascinating. I really wish I could find a biography on Queen Soraya. I have only found here memoir though.

I also thought the book was more plot driven than character driven. But, it was a real page-turner

Great review. I've added it to my TBR.

I hope I can get to this one this month. When I sorted my kindle books for this tag it floated to the top.

Regina wrote: "I really wish I could find a biography on Queen Soraya. ..."

Ooooh, that would be interesting!

Olivermagnus wrote: "Great review. I've added it to my TBR."

Hope you like! We do often have similar taste, so... :-)

Jgrace wrote: "I hope I can get to this one this month. When I sorted my kindle books for this tag it floated to the top."

It was actually for my f2f book club this month. It just also happened to fit here! I had missed Regina's original review, so it wasn't on my radar, so until she recommended it for the tag, I hadn't realized it would fit. Worked out well (in addition to being a really really good read!).

LibraryCin wrote: "I was a bit appalled at how little seemed to have changed between the two time frames in the book, at least for women...."

I agree. Even though there was a thread of hopefulness and persistence, so many events incorporated into the story were degrading and demoralizing for women.