When the moon is low

Format:

Book (regular print)

Title:

When the moon is low

Author:

Hashimi, Nadia author

ISBN:

9780062369574

9780062439772

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2015]

Physical Description:

384 pages : map ; 24 cm

Summary:

When her happy middle-class life in Afghanistan is shattered by the rise of the Taliban and her husband's murder by fundamentalists, former schoolteacher Fereiba embarks on a high-risk effort to escape to England with her three children.

Subject(s):

Refugees -- Afghanistan -- Fiction.

Refugees -- Fiction.

Teachers -- Fiction

Family life -- Fiction

Survival -- Fiction

Mother and child -- Fiction

Human trafficking -- Fiction

Coming of age -- Fiction

Choice -- Fiction

Afghanistan -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Afghanistan -- Fiction.

Genre:

Added Corporate Author:

Juvenile Collection.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	Fic Hashimi, N. 2015	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	Hashimi, N.	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	Hashimi, N.	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Silver Falls Library	FIC HASHIMI	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Mahmoud's passion for his wife Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she's ever known. But their happy, middle-class world--a life of education, work, and comfort--implodes when their country is engulfed in war, and the Taliban rises to power.

Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with her three children, Fereiba has one hope to survive: she must find a way to cross Europe and reach her sister's family in England. With forged papers and help from kind strangers they meet along the way, Fereiba make a dangerous crossing into Iran under cover of darkness. Exhausted and brokenhearted but undefeated, Fereiba manages to smuggle them as far as Greece. But in a busy market square, their fate takes a frightening turn when her teenage son, Saleem, becomes separated from the rest of the family.

Faced with an impossible choice, Fereiba pushes on with her daughter and baby, while Saleem falls into the shadowy underground network of undocumented Afghans who haunt the streets of Europe's capitals. Across the continent Fereiba and Saleem struggle to reunite, and ultimately find a place where they can begin to reconstruct their lives.

Author Notes

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi was born and raised in New York and New Jersey. She graduated from Brandeis University with degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and Biology. She enrolled in medical school in Brooklyn and completed her pediatric training at NYU/Bellevue hospitals in New York City.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell is her debut novel. Nadia is also the author of When the Moon is Low, A House Without Windows and One Half from the East.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

Hashimi's follow-up to her debut, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell (2014), is the powerful story of an Afghan family fleeing Taliban-controlled Kabul in the late 1990s. After her romantic dreams of marrying the boy next door are dashed, Fereiba is wed to the boy's cousin, an engineer named Mahmoud. The two are happy together until the Taliban's rise to power forces Fereiba to give up her job as a teacher. Mahmoud and Fereiba make plans to flee Kabul with their two children (a third is on the way), but before they can leave, the Taliban arrests Mahmoud. With no choice but to take her children and run, Fereiba begins a dangerous journey across Asia and Europe. Fereiba is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers and the ingenuity of her 15-year-old son, Saleem, until a run-in with Greek police officers separates him from his mother and siblings. With grace and sensitivity, Hashimi illuminates the harrowing odysseys and numerous dangers refugees contend with in their quest for a safe haven.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2015 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Returning to the setting of contemporary Afghanistan, Hashimi (The Pearl That Broke Its Shell) follows the childhood and maturity of Fereiba after her mother died in childbirth and her father remarries a woman who favors her own daughters. Perceived by neighbors as bad luck, Fereiba struggles to find a suitor. An unknown, Mahmood Waziri, enters the picture, and over time, the Waziri family comes to include son Saleem and daughter Samira. Fereiba relays the devastating effects the Taliban has on daily life in Kabul, especially after Mahmood is captured. Shortly after giving birth to a son, Aziz, an impoverished Fereiba, and her three children trek to Iran, then onward to Turkey attempting to join her stepsister Najiba in England. Later chapters are narrated by a teenage Saleem as he endures menial labor to support his family, notably an ailing Aziz. Through the kindness of locals, the family's journey takes them to Greece, where Saleem is detained, as the rest of the family continues. Hashimi masterfully captures Saleem's moving story as he squats in refugee camps, stealthily makes his way to Italy, and unexpectedly finds transport to France, all while haunted by loving memories of Mahmood. VERDICT Expertly depicting the anxiety and excitement that accompanies a new life, Hashimi's gripping page-turner is perfect for book clubs. [See Prepub Alert, 1/5/15.]-Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.