Title of the book - A House Without Windows

Author - Nadia Hashimi

Book Group Meeting - July 2nd 2021

A House Without Windows happened to be an interesting reading experience for the group. As our other book readings in the past, this time we each had some similar and some uniquely different take on the book.

Right from the title and the cover of the book, the author made it apparent that the book is about plight and grey and some dark aspects in life.
The author in her writing used colours here and there to reveal and highlight in the form lifestories and plotted very beautifully her novel with the intention of sharing and bringing to attention the real life happenings in Afghanistan in the current times.

The author Ms Hashimi wastes no time in revealing the main inceident the central plot and starts beautifully weaving the story and revealing the life, occurances , the thinking and mindset, the cultural values and upbringings.

Miss Nadia Hashimi wastes no time and the story begins with introducing zeba as an ordinary Afghan woman in a village, sad and ill-treated by her husband and a mother of four children who then murders her husband and is sent to prison. The reason for the murder and the crime scene is solved by Yusuf a modern Amarican but afghani lawyer with the help of other characters in the book such as Zeba’s mother , villagers and the judge who gives the verdict freeing Zeba andholding her husband responsible as an immoral, disrespectful commiting religious offenses on several occasions.

Miss Hashimi skillfully weaves within layers of the narrative story all different characters and brings in scenes and circumstances revealing cleaverly the existing cultural and societal conditions of Afghanistan.  The author who has her roots in Afghani origin lives in America has been interested in its cultural and human rights development specially for women and children. As such being a practicing pediatrician and a mother of three kids takes time out actively researching and
expressing her keen interest in the country’s welfare and human rights by bringing to attention the social and cultural conditions through her narrative novel writing as a medium of her expression.

Most of us enjoyed reading the book and the narrative style having a good attention span inspite of the gruesome circumstances and characterization of Kamal, Zeba’s husband. We all enjoyed the group discussion and did an Afghani dance together to add cheer to our meeting and to current circumstance of being in movement restrictions all at home. It gave us a little jiggety jig and we all got excited to volunteer to read another book though we could have
taken a break in July.

Overall I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a light flowy novel set in a real world.