I’m a big fan of fiction set in the Indian subcontinent and have a sizeable reading history with these novels, so cracking this novel open felt almost familiar, even though a) I haven’t read it before; and b) its set in Afghanistan rather than the subcontinent proper. I had been putting this one off in part because the novels I have read that have been set in Afghanistan tend towards the bleak- totally understandable given the events that have shaped the country in the last decades (centuries?), but also difficult to get excited about reading- I was thinking here largely about The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, which were good, but so hard to read. I am pleasantly surprised to report that The Pearl That Broke Its Shell does not share the same bleakness as those other Afghani novels, although it does deal with some heavy themes.
The story centres on the coming of age of two young women, Shekiba and Rahima, at two points in Afghanistan’s history, the early 1900s and the early 2000s. There are many parallels between the two women’s stories, in particular the negotiation of gender norms but also how little control they have over their own lives. Shekiba’s is the historical story, and is framed as a story told to Rahima by her aunt, essentially as a metaphorical guide for how Rahaima might navigate her own difficult circumstances. After Shekiba’s immediate family dies in a cholera epidemic, she becomes a gender-neutral guard in the Shah’s harem. Rahima is likewise given a gender-neutral beginning- as a child her family cuts her hair and dresses her as a boy or bacha posh- the family has no sons and the novel presents this as an accepted Afghani practice to get around some of the restrictions the family would otherwise endure. After puberty, Rahima is made a girl once more and then married off to a much older warlord.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel and am glad I read it- I have a greater understanding and empathy for what it might be like to be a girl in central Asia. That being said, I would read this one for the ideas behind the story rather than the writing quality, which was somewhat lackluster.