Our Shared Shelf discussion

“When my mother died, my father smiled and said: your mother is dead.”

That’s the first line of The Protocol of Lebanese Housewives — and I still haven’t shaken it off. The book explores a young woman’s search for truth after her mother’s mysterious death, set in post-war Lebanon, in a family where silence is law and obedience is love.

What struck me most is how the novel handles intergenerational trauma among women — the way mothers are often broken by the systems they were forced to survive, and daughters are left to decode the silence.

I think this book says something profound (and painful) about:

How patriarchy hides behind "normal family life"

How anger is policed in women — especially daughters

How silence becomes its own inheritance

💬 For those who’ve read it — did you feel like Maya was rewriting her mother’s story through her own questions?
And are there other books that explore feminine rage or grief in this kind of quiet, devastating way?

Would love to hear your thoughts.
The Protocol of Lebanese Housewives: Inspired by true events