City of Widows: A Novel – A Gripping Epic Saga of Afghan Women at a Crossroads of History Under the Taliban
From bestselling novelist Nadia Hashimi—a gripping, occasionally terrifying, yet ultimately hopeful novel focusing on the women of Afghanistan in the years since the Taliban regained power.
In February 2020 the US began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan after nearly twenty years of occupation. A whole generation of Afghan women had been born during that time—women who had grown up in relative peace, gone to school, entered the professions, even served in the army and Parliament. The women of Afghanistan watched as the Taliban filled the streets again. They knew everything was about to change.
In the bustling, cosmopolitan city of Kabul, women are TV newscasters, shop owners, doctors, teachers, lawyers, even soldiers. They include Marjan, who fought with the Afghan army, and will risk everything to keep her daughter Hawa safe. In her earlier days Marjan was called Rahima and had lived the life of a bacha posh—a girl raised as a boy until she came of age. Forced into an early marriage, Rahima took the name Marjan when she fled her warlord husband. She’s created a whole new life for herself, one she will not give up easily.
So has Soraya, who defiantly wore red lipstick as she led the army’s all-female combat force over the objections of her upper-class family. Soraya’s now a wanted woman whose brother may choose not to shelter her from the Taliban. What will become of her? Or Mina, a journalist and broadcaster whose beautiful face is known to everyone in Kabul—including the new regime?
Fight or flight? Or find a third way? One thing is for certain: none of these women will meekly accept her fate.
An epic saga of fear, resistance, change, and reinvention, City of Widows gives voices to the unforgettable Afghan women at a crossroads of history.
“An essential read…heartbreaking, powerful, and indelible.” — Booklist (starred review)
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Since the inception of time, humanity has craved the beauty and comfort found only in the tapestry of story, embroidered with the threads of tragedy and triumph. We seek the steaming warmth of a tale steeped in suffering, fraught with friendship and fate, loyalty and betrayal, and slashed through with love’s double-edged sword. And all stories begin with a mother.
This story starts two decades ago with Bibikoh, Mother of the Mountain. She struck up a conversation with a couple of other widows in town, and they came here together because they were safer as a collective. More widows followed, with sad babies and sad stories: stories of rape, underage marriage, domestic violence. Whose only witnesses to their abuse had been the relatives of their husbands. They were inspired by their faith that there must be a place between war and love, a place where a woman scorned could rest her eyes and her head.
A woman will not be underestimated. This invisible city with these hidden homes in a silent uprising became a world apart from men: the city of widows–those whose husbands were dead or dead to them–was born. Teachers, activists, artists, owners of small businesses came to sip chai or to indulge in a water pipe, to whisper about lovers or to rant about injustice. Here, in this city of widows and words, in this space of hushed secrets and audacious aspirations, the expression of the women’s faces were not marked by fear but with a bold lip and the aviator gaze of defiance.
Great love demands great courage. Maybe going to battle for oneself is the greatest love story of all. Protagonist Marjan thinks of herself as a guest house. She has been so many women in her life: feisty Bacha posh tomboy, betrayed child bride, nervous mother, lionhearted survivor, hopeful romantic, widow by choice. Which is her true identity? It is in embracing them all that we become whole. Champion of women’s untold stories, alchemist of fiction into humanitarian aid, Nadia Hashimi’s City of Widows is literary gold!
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.