Genre Fiction
![Nadia Hashimi - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B00INYQ4RS.jpg)
A House Without Windows: A Novel
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.
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.
Readers Top Reviews
G. Noble Margaret
To say I enjoyed reading this book seems the wrong word. The author takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions and it was equal parts maddening, frustrating, and desperately sad to see that the lives of girls and women mean so little when it comes to the patriarchal system. I found it infuriating that there was so little attempt to properly investigate or gather evidence. That the authorities didn't want to know about there being any other possibility than that Zeba was guilty. I found myself shaking my head at the 'crimes' of the other women in jail (leaving an abusive spouse for example) but it did make me think about my own country's attitudes towards women and girls. I do think the book could have been a little shorter and edited a little more tightly as it did meander a bit in places, but overall an interesting read. I have bookmarked the author's other books to read in future. Rating: 4 stars.
E. FournierSteven M
The best part of A HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS is its gorgeous cover art. Like the fabled Arabian Nights, the image promises hopeful revelations ahead. As it turns out, the cover is a fantasy that the women of Afghanistan can only imagine. They dream of sitting in the sunlight of an open society, but that vision has not been realized in a thousand and one nights, nor in a thousand years, nor is it ever likely to happen. Over and over again, as I read, I put the book aside because of the emotional weight of the evil it unveiled. Set in modern-day Afghanistan, Zeba, the main character and mother of four, is found covered in her husband’s blood with his murdered body sprawled at her feet. Narrowly escaping instant execution by her neighbors and later by a male relative, she is charged with murder and taken away. Her children are farmed out to in-laws while she is imprisoned to await her certain and fatal justice. The mission of the story is to reveal what actually transpired and to expose the frightfully ill-equipped legal/religious system’s ability to deliver anything remotely akin to true justice. Ms. Hashimi’s skills at placing the reader into the scenes and fashioning interesting characters are first rate. However, the realities of Zeba’s former village life, and the day-to-day plights endured by the Afghan women she meets are so relentlessly dark and despicable, that reading about them, page after page, became a burden. I knew the story was getting too dark for me when the time that Zeba spent confined in the women’s prison read like a paradise. The Islamic republic that Ms. Hashimi portrays (and I have no reason to doubt her accuracy) is a human rights horror show with medieval notions of honor enforced by religious absolutism. To be sure, males have the upper hand, but the women and children are not alone in this house without windows; the men are trapped here, too. What I found curious was that none of the women in the book retain any internal regard for Allah or Islam—including Zeba. Their religion holds nothing for them. They all avidly adopt black magic practices and seek charms and potions, anything to exert some small control over their precarious futures. On the men’s side, religion is an advantage and a tool of oppression but it seems to be only a loud external show, quietly tossed aside in private. Ms. Hashimi struggles in her overly long book to bring some few glimmers of light into A HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS. Sadly, for me, even Zeba’s selfless victory seems but a lit match in a sealed mine. It won’t matter. It is not a harbinger of good things to come; it’s a measurement of the depth of the darkness. There is no way to fix things here—not by Zeba and not by do-gooders from the west. What real hope there may be is hard for this reader to imagine.
Kindle
This is an eye opening book I am very glad to have read! I have read of the discrimination of women in other countries but to actually read this one book makes me want to pray for more equality for them and to learn more..
MsVee
This book, my first buy this author, was powerful and chilling. Hashimi poured her heart into this book and I thank you for providing insight to the life of an Afghani woman. My heart ached for Zeba and the other women of Chil Mahtab. I didn't believe that she killed her husband and I wanted justice for her which would give the other women hope. And show just how flawed the justice is there.
Phyllis Lewis
This book was an eye opener to me. Never in my life can I think that women were treated like dogs by men. In Afghanistan women are nothing in this story, but I don't know about now. This Author tells a heartbreaking story, but one that tells about a mother's love for all children and how she protects a child who is not her own. Read this book and it will open your eyes to what goes on in the middle east.
