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A House Without Windows
November 2022: Book Club
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A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi - 4 stars
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I just added this to my TBR so it is good to see a positive review.
Booknblues wrote: "I just added this to my TBR so it is good to see a positive review."Look forward to seeing what you think of it.
Murder mystery set in Afghanistan and focused on the issues faced by women. The accused is the victim’s wife, Zeba, the only person at home at the time of the murder, but the evidence is solely circumstantial. The police investigation was not carried out with an eye to forensics. The word of a woman means very little and in court, even the judge wants her to say she did it just to move on with other cases. Zeba’s lawyer is a young Afghan educated in the US. When he asks her what happened, she keeps quiet for fear her children will suffer. Her husband’s family assumes she is guilty.
As Zeba waits in prison, she learns the backstories of her fellow female prisoners. They are accused of all sorts of “crimes” that would never be considered such if enacted by a man. A sub-plot involves the personal life of the lawyer, who has avoided marriage in order to focus on his work. The author is an Afghan American. She does a wonderful job of balancing the story so that it does not feel like a litany of misery. In the end there is a small ray of hope. I appreciated this book and look forward to reading more from this author.
It is tagged Book Club by 72 people.
Content warnings: (view spoiler)[rape, domestic violence (hide spoiler)]