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.
