When We Were Sisters

August 22, 2022
Asghar follows the poetry collection If They Come for Us with her elegant debut novel, which follows three Pakistani American sisters scrabbling to get by after their father dies. Nine-year-old Noreen, the oldest and de facto caretaker; Aisha, the quarrelsome middle child; and Kausar, the sensitive youngest, are taken in by an estranged relative, referred to only as “Uncle,” who promises them a home with a zoo. It soon becomes apparent that he has taken custody only to cash the checks that the government pays him to care for the sisters (the “zoo” turns out to be a hallway of mistreated pets), and he rules the sisters’ lives with authoritarian neglect, demanding they follow a strict schedule even while he leaves them unsupervised for long stretches of time. The sisters must learn to grapple with their grief while caring for each other and establishing their own identities. Asghar’s poetic sensibilities are on full display in the lyrical and oblique prose (“Brown fingers cradle porcelain, the news spreading fast and careless as a common cold”), and the frequent formal experimentation enlivens the text (for example, one page reads in its entirety: “A bunk bed in exchange for a father./ What idiots. He was our father. We should have asked for more”). The result is a creative telling of a tender coming-of-age tale.

March 1, 2023

Pakistani-Kashmiri American poet Asghar's (If They Come for Us) debut novel follows three Pakistani American sisters through a bleak childhood marked by grief and neglect. Noreen, Aisha, and Kausar lost their mother years ago; now, after their father's sudden death, they are orphaned. They are taken in by their corrupt uncle, who stows them in a shoddy apartment filled with turtles, birds, and other animals. He lives elsewhere but keeps the girls in this desperate limbo as he draws on their inheritance. Hungry and unsupported, the girls grow into adults, struggling to do right by each other and themselves. Farah Kidwai, Kamran Khan, and Deepti Gupta narrate, with Kidwai taking the lead and telling the story through Kausar's eyes. Khan gives voice to the girls' father ("Him"), and Gupta provides a brief, but graceful appearance as their mother ("Her"). While Kidwai skillfully captures the lyricism of Asghar's words, listeners may be disoriented by experimental parts of the book that don't translate well into audio, including pages with the text written vertically and sentences separated by large gaps. VERDICT Asghar's poignant debut shines with moments of piercing beauty despite the heaviness that governs the sisters' lives. A tough but gorgeous listen.--Sarah Hashimoto

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