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The erstwhile question of who is speaking the poems proves confusing rather than alleviating – do these poems come from Kausar’s false memories or are they spoken from beyond? They seem to operate more as a link between Aghar’s past and present work rather than needed interludes. The lyricism employed in asides from the dead parents pulls the reader away from the main plot. The visceral reality they exist in makes the book compelling if brutal. Their conflicts range from the petty gripes of sisters to the real concerns of violence and hunger. Instead the girls are forced from a young age to live alone. Where there should be family responsibility and compassion, there is nothing.

Noreen, Aisha, and Kausar are stuck in an irrevocably bad situation: their mother died years ago, their father murdered, and they are now wards of the state, fostered by their withholding uncle. The novel was shortlisted for the National Book Award prior to its release.Īsghar blends poetry with their storytelling to layer the narrative with historical poignancy.

It is at once a difficult read and one that is difficult to put down. Focusing on the lives of three orphaned Muslim American sisters, and told from the perspective of the youngest Kausar, When We Were Sisters contends with themes of poverty, gender, and abuse. Poet, screenwriter, and now debut author Fatimah Asghar follows the release of their highly-acclaimed poetry collection If They Come For Us with their new novel When We Were Sisters, out this week. When We Were Sisters picks up the parts of our own selves that we have left behind over time at different places and turns, gently stitching them together in a story that makes both reader and writer whole again.Tags: Debut, Fatimah Asghar, New Literature The catharsis happens from the grieving, to really hold the pain that you are trying to cope with,” muses Asghar. “There is grieving as well as catharsis that happens when writing a book like this. After all, we will all be orphans in time. It captures our rage, our pain, our indifference. The characters grapple with their own complexities as well as those of the adults around them, leaving readers with the overwhelming burden of our collective failure to hand-hold future generations. Asghar doesn’t stoop down to look through the young eyes of Kausar and her sisters, but holds them up for us to peek into their world. Yet, they do it with a lyrical vulnerability that truly captures the world view of the place and the age of their characters.

Asghar shows a distinctive aptitude for translating the unsaid in our lives into emotions the characters contend with. Our complexities are not unidirectional: we have all had experiences where we feel like we’ve been overlooked. But that is what makes them instantly relatable. The characters in the book are not easy to understand, love or agree with.