Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
An Afghan American woman returns to Kabul to learn the truth about her family and the tragedy that destroyed their lives in this brilliant and compelling novel from the bestselling author of The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, The House Without Windows, and When the Moon Is Low.
Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan's thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan's progressive president, and Sitara's beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara's world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara's entire family. Only she survives.
Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name--Aryana Shepherd--and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon. A survivor, Aryana has refused to look back, choosing instead to bury the trauma and devastating loss she endured.
New York, 2008: Thirty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana's world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room--a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family. Seeing him awakens Aryana's fury and desire for answers--and, perhaps, revenge. Realizing that she cannot go on without finding the truth, Aryana embarks on a quest that takes her back to Kabul--a battleground between the corrupt government and the fundamentalist Taliban--and through shadowy memories of the world she loved and lost.
Bold, illuminating, heartbreaking, yet hopeful, Sparks Like Stars is a story of home- of America and Afghanistan, tragedy and survival, reinvention and remembrance, told in Nadia Hashimi's singular voice.
About the author
Nadia Hashimi was born and raised in New York and New Jersey. Both her parents were born in Afghanistan and left in the early 1970s, before the Soviet invasion. In 2002, Nadia made her first trip to Afghanistan with her parents. She is a pediatrician and lives with her family in the Washington, DC, suburbs. She is the author of three books for adults, as well as the middle grade novels One Half from the East and The Sky at Our Feet.
Visit her online at www.nadiahashimi.com
Review
‘Sparks Like Stars’ is a deep and moving book that I was deeply enthralled by. Nadia’s writing is beautiful and profound. It allowed the reader to step into Afghanistan in the late 1970s and the texture of the novel is rich in detail. This is a book that concentrates on its characters and it has made for some excellent portrayals. This is not an easy read as it deals with the after-effects of trauma, loss and grief but it is a timely read. Imagine how many people are experiencing the violence of a Russian / Russian sanctioned action today and it makes this a very poignant read, superb but harrowing.
I have been to Afghanistan once. Well I say I have been but being stuck in a room in Kabul airport for four days doesn't really count but I am counting it! I was 9 years old and flew on Afghan airlines to India. It first of all stopped in Prague and we were stuck there for two nights, then flew to somewhere in Russia where we were surrounded by armed guards for a day with no food and water. Then flew to Kabul where as I mentioned we were stuck in a room and the only food and drink was only to be bought with Sterling and we didn't have any! It was a very stressful and strange experience which reflected the geo-political themes of the age! Afghanistan had just come out of a war situation with the USSR and the civil war was taking place. It is a country that has been decimated by outside forces and look at the situation now - why did action a war when you are willing to leave a country in the hands of the Taliban?! Sorry I get very emotive with this subject. Anyway, this is a long way to say this is a country in which I respect the common people and the culture and therefore I was excited to read this book. Hopefully, at one put in my lifetime, I will get to travel there in peace.
Sitara is an ordinary young girl who is inquisitive of the world and her surroundings. But not that ordinary as she is the daughter of a high ranking official in President Daoud’s government. Caught up in the coup she fears for her life but miraculously is saved by one of the guards and is smuggled out of the palace to an American diplomat who ends up adopting. They return to the US and Sitara becomes Aryana. The second half of the book takes place in the US where Aryana is working as a doctor and comes across an elderly patient who turns out to be the guard who saved her. This makes her question her connection to Afghanistan, her history and that night so long ago.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
