A Sister to Honor

Afia Satar is just another college student, studying hard on a New England campus and dreaming big dreams about becoming a doctor to help the poor village women in her native Pakistan. When she falls in love, she forgets that she is not just any other college co-ed, but a Pashtun girl from a village where the family%E2%80%99s reputation is tightly linked to the daughter%E2%80%99s purity. An innocent picture of her clasping hands with a boy on her college%E2%80%99s website catalyzes her jihadi step-brother to insist Shahid, her older brother who%E2%80%99s also in New England, remove the stain on the family%E2%80%99s honor. Honor is the heartbeat of this novel as the Satar family grapples with their responsibilities and expectations. The Americans%E2%80%94especially Shahid%E2%80%99s squash coach Lissy Hayes%E2%80%94have different ideas of honor. Tribal ties clash with individualism, as Afia and Shahid struggle to find the right path. Both are aware this may not end well. Afia and Shahid%E2%80%99s painful struggle is intricately crafted, and the cultural nuances are evocatively depicted in this thought-proving novel. (Jan.)