A vivid, unforgettable story of an unlikely sisterhood—an
emotionally powerful and haunting tale of friendship that
illuminates the plight of women in a traditional
culture—from the author of the bestselling The Pearl
That Broke Its Shell and When the Moon Is Low. For two decades, Zeba was a loving wife, a patient mother,
and a peaceful villager. But her quiet life is shattered
when her husband, Kamal, is found brutally murdered with a
hatchet in the courtyard of their home. Nearly catatonic
with shock, Zeba is unable to account for her whereabouts at
the time of his death. Her children swear their mother could
not have committed such a heinous act. Kamal’s family is
sure she did, and demands justice. Barely escaping a vengeful mob, Zeba is arrested and jailed.
As Zeba awaits trial, she meets a group of women whose own
misfortunes have also led them to these bleak cells:
thirty-year-old Nafisa, imprisoned to protect her from an
honor killing; twenty-five-year-old Latifa, who ran away
from home with her teenage sister but now stays in the
prison because it is safe shelter; and nineteen-year-old
Mezhgan, pregnant and unmarried, waiting for her lover’s
family to ask for her hand in marriage. Is Zeba a
cold-blooded killer, these young women wonder, or has she
been imprisoned, as they have been, for breaking some social
rule? For these women, the prison is both a haven and a
punishment. Removed from the harsh and unforgiving world
outside, they form a lively and indelible sisterhood. Into this closed world comes Yusuf, Zeba’s Afghan-born,
American-raised lawyer, whose commitment to human rights and
desire to help his motherland have brought him back. With
the fate of this seemingly ordinary housewife in his hands,
Yusuf discovers that, like Afghanistan itself, his client
may not be at all what he imagines. A moving look at the lives of modern Afghan women, A
House Without Windows is astonishing, frightening, and
triumphant.
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