August 2026

When the United States left Afghanistan for the last time in August 2021, the photos of the Afghan people who were racing to leave with our soldiers were embedded in my memory. What was that moment like? What was going to happen to the women of that country as we departed after two decades? It's one of the images that continues to haunt me.

Women had flourished while the US military was there. They had gone to school, gotten jobs and contributed to their families outside of their homes. For nearly 20 years, they had tasted freedom. But then their worlds changed, seemingly overnight. Taliban rule was back as the order of the land, and once again pickup trucks with machine gun-toting soldiers on board were in the streets. 

This countdown to the departure of the Americans is the time period that Nadia Hashimi writes about in her latest novel, CITY OF WIDOWS. We see what is happening day by day in August 2021 and then are brought back in time to what transpired in the last two decades in dated chapters that are woven throughout the book.

I have been an admirer of Nadia's work since THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL. She has brought the country of Afghanistan to light for me, especially noting how women fare there. In CITY OF WIDOWS, Marjan was married off at 13 to a wealthy man, and she bore him a son, who died. When she learned that she was pregnant again, she fled and has been raising her young daughter, Hawa, on her own. (Note: Readers may recognize Marjan from when she was called Rahima in THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL. I confess that I did not connect the two, but reading that book does not need to happen first.)

We see the trauma that Marjan has been through, the constant fear and desperation. Will she be found? For a while at different portions of the book, Hawa lives in an orphanage where she pines for her mother. We see how Marjan became a soldier working alongside Americans to help root out the Taliban along with other female soldiers, including a woman named Soraya, who, like Marjan, has found the strength to battle back. We learn of Hawa's love of music, which weaves its way through the pages until it takes on a very mighty sound close to the end of the book. And we follow a journalist named Mina, whose face has become known to the Taliban as she has done nightly broadcasts, which also will be coming to an end.

Additionally, we learn what the City of Widows is. There we see the power of women who band together to keep themselves and their families safe. This is a very powerful book that will make you grateful for where you live every day. It would be perfect for a book group discussion. As uncomfortable as reading it can be, I feel we cannot forget how freedom can be lost in a moment --- and why we should cherish the freedoms that we have. 

I interviewed Nadia about CITY OF WIDOWS. You can watch our conversation here or listen to it here.