Title: A House Without WindowsAuthor: Nadia HashimiPublished: 16 August 2016Genre: FictionRating: 4 out of 5Date Started: 29 June 2020Date Finished: 5 July 2020
My interest in this book is:
When I read the synopsis of the book, it intrigued me. Since the story was about a woman who is convicted of killing her husband in a place like Afghanistan where the human rights and the rights of women hold no value, made me pick up this book.
Ideas Expressed/Message/Plot:
Zeba, who is married to Kamal for nearly two decades leads the life of a loving wife and a mother. On an unfortunate day, she is arrested when her husband Kamal is brutally murdered with a hatchet in their backyard, and Zeba is accused of killing him. The children swear that their mother could not do such a heinous crime against their father.
Escaping the anger of Kamal’s family members, she is arrested and jailed in Chil Mahtab. The novel contains the stories of other women prisoners who have been wrongly jailed since a woman’s reports are not taken as evidence. For the women, the jail is both harsh and a safe haven, protecting them from the cruelty outside.
Into this comes the Afghan-born, American-raised lawyer Yusuf, who tries to fight Zeba’s case. Will Yusuf be able to save Zeba from the death sentence?
Favorite Characters:
Of all the characters in the book, my favorite character was Yusuf. He tries to shard to save Zeba knowing that there is more to the story. I liked the way the author writes about his struggles trying to adjust to the culture and environment he spent his early years. Having grown up in America, he compares how the family could have faced a different destiny if they ended up staying in Afghanistan.
When I finished this book, I felt:
It was a long read and an extremely detailed one as well. I felt that the book could have been reduced to half of what it is and still have a strong impact on the reader. There were so many unnecessary characters and substories and the end was twisted and failed to have the same impact as the story!
Favorite lines from the book:
Children always forgive their mothers. That's the way God's designed them. He gives them two arms, two legs, and a heart that will cry 'mother' until the day it stops beating.
There's a special kind of hurt in learning that your parents are not the angels or saviors you wish them to be.
What a burden it is to be born a woman.
