
When We Were Sisters
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Farah Kidwai
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Kamran Khan
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Deepti Gupta
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By:
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Fatimah Asghar
About this listen
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • “This exquisite debut wrestles with gender, siblinghood, family, and what it means to be Muslim in America—all through the lens of love.”—Time
“Haunting . . . a knife-sharp story of self-discovery.”—People
WINNER OF THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, NPR, Time, Vox, PopSugar, Autostraddle
In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, the acclaimed author of If They Come for Us traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest, Kausar, grapples with the incomprehensible loss of their parents as she also charts out her own understanding of gender; Aisha, the middle sister, spars with her “crybaby” younger sibling as she desperately tries to hold on to her sense of family in an impossible situation; and Noreen, the eldest, does her best in the role of sister-mother while also trying to create a life for herself, on her own terms.
As Kausar grows up, she must contend with the collision of her private and public worlds, and choose whether to remain in the life of love, sorrow, and codependency that she’s known or carve out a new path for herself. When We Were Sisters tenderly examines the bonds and fractures of sisterhood, names the perils of being three Muslim American girls alone against the world, and ultimately illustrates how those who’ve lost everything might still make homes in one another.
LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE AND THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
©2022 Fatimah Asghar (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Haunting . . . a knife-sharp story of . . . self-discovery.”—People
“Braids lyric and narrative vignettes into a tender, vivid, heart-aching story of three orphaned sisters and the world they create together, the great beauty and stunning pain of that belonging… captured . . . with a poet’s ear for language. The characters are so thoughtfully rendered, so three-dimensional in their . . . infinite complications.”—Electric Literature
“Threaded with vignettes and poetic interludes, the novel constantly morphs into the shape of . . . new families.”—The Cut
I was teary eyed, stunned, and absolutely floored by the way the story is told. This lyrical book is full of the biggest of feelings.
If you’re new to poets writing novels — they totally do and more will/should so let this book be your first!
#LittleBooksBigFeelings
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Heartbreaking and beautiful
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Interesting but boring
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Set in a 1990s northern US city of South-Asian immigrants, an uncle takes in the girls when no other family members will. He steals their inheritance, barely provides the physical necessities, and is incapable of an iota of emotional caring. Most of the characters, above all the sisters, display a resilience honed through struggle.
How do we discover who we are without the love and guidance of committed adults? How do we grow into our faith, sexuality, values? Lacking parents, an intense sibling bond anchors the sisters throughout their stages of development.
This book delivers more than an exercise in longing and grief. Fatimah Asghar’s debut novel is so very worthy of one’s heart and time.
Sibling Love SOS
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Just Gorgeous!
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Tragic, beautiful and poetic
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# When We Were Sisters
# 9/17/2023 ~ 9/17/2023
# 3.5 / 5.0
GOOD
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Really depressing
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With that being said, I do think this book might be more enjoyable as a reading experience rather than a listening one due to the authors style of writing and tendency to repeat the same word many, many times.
Boring and Superficial
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At times the story forced the reader to ingest more than necessary while vague and confusing in others.
Writing style different and has potential yet felt like the author may have overreached with some aspects of the story leaving the reader with more details than necessary for shock factor moving away from what could have been a tender story.
TMI
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