When the Moon Is Low: A Novel - Softcover

Hashimi, Nadia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062677632 ISBN 13: 9780062677631

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 2017

Synopsis

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

When Mahmoud becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered, his widow is forced to flee Kabul with their three children. Fereiba has one hope to survive: she must find a way to reach her sister's family in England. With forged papers and help from kind strangers they meet along the way, 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, exhausted but undefeated, and ultimately find a place where they can be a family again.

About this title

Review:

"A must-read saga about borders, barriers, and the resolve of one courageous mother fighting to cross over."--O, the Oprah Magazine

"Expertly depicting the anxiety and excitement that accompanies a new life, Hashimi's gripping page-turner is perfect for book clubs."--Library Journal (starred review)

From the Back Cover:

By turns astonishing, frightening, and triumphant, When the Moon Is Low chronicles one brave Afghan woman's odyssey to save her family

In Kabul, we meet Fereiba, a schoolteacher who puts her troubled childhood behind her when she finds love in an arranged marriage. But Fereiba's comfortable life implodes when the Taliban rises to power and her family becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime. Forced to flee with her three children, Fereiba has one hope for survival: to seek refuge with her sister's family in London.

Traveling with forged papers and depending on the kindness of strangers, Fereiba and the children make a dangerous crossing into Iran under cover of darkness, the start of a harrowing journey that reduces her from a respected wife and mother to a desperate refugee.

Eventually they fall into the shadowy underground network of the undocumented who haunt the streets of Europe's cities. And then, in a busy market square in Athens, their fate takes a frightening turn when Fereiba's teenage son, Saleem, becomes separated from the rest of the family. Without his mother, Saleem is forced, abruptly and unforgivingly, to come of age in a world of human trafficking and squalid refugee camps.

Heartbroken, Fereiba has no choice but to continue on with only her daughter and baby. Mother and son cross border after perilous border, risking their lives in the hope of finding a place where they can be reunited.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0062677632
• ISBN 13: 9780062677631
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 400