When We Were Sisters

A Novel

By: Fatimah Asghar

Narrated by: Farah Kidwai, Kamran Khan, Deepti Gupta

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • “This exquisite debut wrestles with gender, siblinghood, family, and what it means to be Muslim in America—all through the lens of love.”—Time

“Haunting . . .  a knife-sharp story of self-discovery.”—People

WINNER OF THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, NPR, Time, Vox, PopSugar, Autostraddle

In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, the acclaimed author of If They Come for Us traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest, Kausar, grapples with the incomprehensible loss of their parents as she also charts out her own understanding of gender; Aisha, the middle sister, spars with her “crybaby” younger sibling as she desperately tries to hold on to her sense of family in an impossible situation; and Noreen, the eldest, does her best in the role of sister-mother while also trying to create a life for herself, on her own terms.

As Kausar grows up, she must contend with the collision of her private and public worlds, and choose whether to remain in the life of love, sorrow, and codependency that she’s known or carve out a new path for herself. When We Were Sisters tenderly examines the bonds and fractures of sisterhood, names the perils of being three Muslim American girls alone against the world, and ultimately illustrates how those who’ve lost everything might still make homes in one another.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE AND THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

©2022 Fatimah Asghar (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Haunting . . .  a knife-sharp story of . . . self-discovery.”—People

“Braids lyric and narrative vignettes into a tender, vivid, heart-aching story of three orphaned sisters and the world they create together, the great beauty and stunning pain of that belonging… captured . . . with a poet’s ear for language. The characters are so thoughtfully rendered, so three-dimensional in their . . . infinite complications.”—Electric Literature

“Threaded with vignettes and poetic interludes, the novel constantly morphs into the shape of . . . new families.”—The Cut

#LittleBooksBigFeelings

Love this book so much and sooooo grateful for the amazing narration via the audiobook!!

I was teary eyed, stunned, and absolutely floored by the way the story is told. This lyrical book is full of the biggest of feelings.

If you’re new to poets writing novels — they totally do and more will/should so let this book be your first!

Interesting but boring

I do not recommend this for audio book based on the authors style of writing.

Heartbreaking and beautiful

I was quite taken with this story, and the way these sisters loved each other and found themselves as they navigated trauma and life in America. Highly recommended.

Sibling Love SOS

Heart wrenching coming-of-age story of three orphaned Pakistani-American sisters, left to fend for themselves and make sense of who they are in an unjust world. Through the poignant voice of the youngest sister, Kauser, we understand the transformative power of relationships, even in the midst of bleak circumstances.

Set in a 1990s northern US city of South-Asian immigrants, an uncle takes in the girls when no other family members will. He steals their inheritance, barely provides the physical necessities, and is incapable of an iota of emotional caring. Most of the characters, above all the sisters, display a resilience honed through struggle.

How do we discover who we are without the love and guidance of committed adults? How do we grow into our faith, sexuality, values? Lacking parents, an intense sibling bond anchors the sisters throughout their stages of development.

This book delivers more than an exercise in longing and grief. Fatimah Asghar’s debut novel is so very worthy of one’s heart and time.

Just Gorgeous!

With a narrative read like poetry and exquisitely performed for the audio version, I highly recommend! Thank you Fatimah for this gift!

Tragic, beautiful and poetic

Really enjoyed this book. Such an amazing story. Tragic, beautiful and poetic. Very much recommend it.

GOOD

This book was very relatable. I know what it feels like to be an orphan and have everyone treated you either like a figment of their imagination or they acknowledge you . They feeling that people only help you for religious purpose. The abuse that comes with it and the lack of resources that quickly follow. I admired that she at least had support, her sisters and her stay together to weather the storm. This isn't a long read but it also highlighted other things for me. How do we show up in this world , without being thought how to. How do we show love when everyone treats you like an afterthought? There is more to it but I'll leave the review here for now.

# When We Were Sisters
# 9/17/2023 ~ 9/17/2023
# 3.5 / 5.0

Really depressing

This is a story of unrelenting sadness and alienation. There is no relief, just an endless chronicling of the wrongs committed by others onto the protagonist and her sisters. I kept waiting for at least a break, once the girls became adults, but instead we see a continuation of the damaged done to her from her early years into the fragmented mess that she grew into.

Boring and Superficial

I expected to like this book, actually, I should have liked this book. I’m also a middle eastern immigrant living in America with two sisters, but I didn’t find this as relatable. The reason being the content is so superficial and barely touches the surface of the struggle of being a middle eastern immigrant OR how brutal those younger formative years are. It could’ve been so much deeper, but unfortunately it was disappointingly shallow.

With that being said, I do think this book might be more enjoyable as a reading experience rather than a listening one due to the authors style of writing and tendency to repeat the same word many, many times.