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A review by sararm
When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.
A fragmented tale, playing with form, full of poetry, of three sisters who raised each other after their parents died.
The relationships at the core of the novel broke my heart with such precision, and soon I found myself swept up in this delicate, continuous heartbreak. This is a book about orphans. It's about wanting to be someone's, making oneself small in order to be loved more easily, more neatly. It's about facing an enormous amount of guilt when you're too small to be guilty of anything.
Though fragmented and short, it manages to do a lot and to convey incredible complexity in the relationship between the sisters, and the sister and the uncle.
It also tries to include other themes (an example is gender identity struggles), but they're thrown in too sparingly to ever feel like they are part of the narration.
A fragmented tale, playing with form, full of poetry, of three sisters who raised each other after their parents died.
The relationships at the core of the novel broke my heart with such precision, and soon I found myself swept up in this delicate, continuous heartbreak. This is a book about orphans. It's about wanting to be someone's, making oneself small in order to be loved more easily, more neatly. It's about facing an enormous amount of guilt when you're too small to be guilty of anything.
Though fragmented and short, it manages to do a lot and to convey incredible complexity in the relationship between the sisters, and the sister and the uncle.
It also tries to include other themes (an example is gender identity struggles), but they're thrown in too sparingly to ever feel like they are part of the narration.