I have heard of writer's block but I'd been suffering from a reader's block for a while. Suffice it to say Nadia Hashimi's flavorful prose jolted me out of it and led me to complete her book in under 3 days! Despite a very serious story, Hashimi gently takes hold of the reader's heart with subtly placed details that elicit a craving for more. Who else can describe a plain meal of rice, bread and spinach so well and I quote, "the aromatic steam of the white rice, a blend of cumin and salt" and again, "tore off a piece of bread and shaped it around a lump of spinach, pink threads of rhubarb mixed in". The staunch non-vegetarian that I am, didn't stop me from drooling while reading this even as I worried earnestly about the protagonist's fate. Zeba is the central character who is jailed for killing her husband Kamal on a day described in such refreshing detail that you can feel it as if you were there in person. Through Zeba, Nadia Hashimi tells the story of the women of Afghanistan and to an extent women everywhere who face hardships because of their gender. I have flipped through similarly themed books without picking it up as a read just because of the unavoidable weight it places on one's mood. This book has resolved that dilemma and I find that I can see Zeba's life with a greater awareness. While I think the title didn't do full justice to the superior prose inside, I have gone ahead and ordered "The Pearl That Broke Its Shell" by the same author. Quite telling I'd say as to what I think of the book and the author.
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