Under The Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Under the Persimmon Tree tells the story of two families in war-torn Afghanistan beginning a month after the September 11th attack on the Twin Towers in New York. The story is narrated by two people; American born Elaine Perrin, now Nusrat Faiz, married to Dr. Faiz Ahmed Faiz and living in Peshwar, Pakistan, and Najmah a young girl fleeing her destroyed village in Northern Afghanistan.

The novel opens in Golestan Village, Northern Afghanistan, where Najmah lives with her mother who is expecting a baby very soon, her brother Nur, and her father, Baba-jan. The day begins like any other until a visit by the Taliban ends in catastrophe for Namjah's family. The Taliban take their food and kidnap her brother and her father to be soldiers. A few days later as Najmah and her mother struggle to survive, her baby brother, Habib, is born.

Namjah's Uncle Mohiuddin comes often to the family home, not to help, but to display his avarice openly for their father's land. Her uncle grows poppies for opium, a crop Najmah's father refuses to grow. He also supports the Taliban. Mohiuddin tells Najmah and her mother that they must leave the Kunduz Hills, as they will never be able to manage the farm, but they refuse. They know that Mohiuddin wants their land and it is their duty to protect it until the men return from fighting.

Najmah takes the goats to the mountains to graze and one night watches a wonderful meteor shower. She does not understand this celestial display and is terrified. When she decides to return to her home in the valley Najmah witnesses the destruction of her family. Her life is further shattered by this event. She is taken in by her neighbour's son, Akhtar, and his wife Khalida, who with their two sons plan to walk to the border town of Torkhum, to escape the Taliban and the coming war with America. When they arrive in Torkhum, Najmah decides she must travel on to Peshawar to see if she can locate her father and younger brother.

Meanwhile, in Peshawar, Nusrat visits her husband, Faiz's family. Nusrat met Faiz when she was attending Columbia University in New York. They both lived in the same old brownstone walk-up. Faiz was a physician working at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. A year after they were married, Faiz confessed to Nusrat that he was concerned about the terrible situation developing in his homeland, Afghanistan. He felt he needed to return there, but with an American wife, Faiz felt this was not possible. However, Nusrat was willing to go with him, and in 2001 they traveled to Peshawar, where Faiz's father had moved the family. Shortly afterwards, Nusrat opened her garden with its huge persimmon tree to the poor refugee children while Faiz went to Mazar-i-Sharif to work in a medical camp.

Nusrat has not had word from Faiz for weeks. To take her mind off of her husband's situation, Nusrat decides to organize a dinner party and afterwards invite her husband's family to watch a meteor shower in the backyard. But Asma refuses saying such shooting stars are an omen.

The story of Nusrat and Namjah intersect when Namjah manages to travel alone to Peshawar and is eventually taken to Nusrat's home. Now they both wait as the American forces gradually liberate more and more of Afghanistan, to learn the fate of their loved ones. While they wait, Nusrat teaches Namjah English and helps her to heal from her terrible ordeal, all the while coming to the realization of what has happened to her beloved Faiz.

Discussion  

Under The Persimmon Tree is the heartrending love story of Nusrat and Faiz, and the loss and suffering of Namjah.  Nusrat (formerly Elaine) and Faiz's love story is beautifully described in flashbacks narrated by Nusrat. The gentle, caring Faiz is a most wonderful antidote to a heart broken by the loss of a beloved sister. And Namjah's family life, although difficult in the best of times, is tied to the land, where "the sky is so close you can reach up and touch it with your hands, and to the beautiful mountains."

The author very effectively paints a portrait of a society destroyed by Taliban rule, of a people terrorized by religious fanaticism and cruelty. We see how the poor farmers of Afghanistan were often powerless to protect themselves and to avoid becoming part of the Taliban insurgency.

An interesting aspect of this book was Elaine's struggle to find meaning in her life after the death of her sister, Margaret. Sadly Elaine's Christian faith did not continue to develop as she grew into adulthood and therefore could not help her to understand and come to terms with the loss of Margaret. The void she felt spiritually was reflected in the modern, plastic home with its purple Koolaid and packaged food as compared with the texturally rich and colourful apartment that Faiz lives in. Faiz's beliefs are woven into his daily living, something Elaine's modern American family seemed to lack.

Elaine's belief that her Christian faith was unable to provide answers to the questions of why, led her, after meeting Faiz, to look towards Islam and to eventually convert. When she goes to see the Imam Inayatollah of a mosque in Manhattan Elaine tells him, "I am a mathematician...I need a religion that's compatible with science and mathematics. In Islam, is there a belief in an order to the universe." She is directed to consider the work of Muslim astronomers and mathematicians. At this time in her life, Elaine seems to feel that Christianity has no concept of an ordered universe - that things just happen and that it cannot explain the reason behind her sister Margaret's death. Of course this is not true, as she comes to understand much later on. Christianity, although long maligned as incompatible with science, has a rich history of both the preservation of scientific knowledge and the discovery of the nature of the world. There are more than enough Christian scientists and mathematicians whose work has demonstrated that God has designed a universe governed by laws that can be known and understood. Eventually, Elaine, now Nusrat comes to understand that the answers she was looking for could have been found in her faith, had she chosen to see them. Nusrat also begins to realize that her rejection of her parents faith and her Judeo-Christian heritage have hurt her parents greatly and that this is something she must address.

Under The Persimmon Tree tackles themes of identity, loss, love, coming of age, and war. It is beautifully written and provides another window into a unique and beautiful culture, far different from Western culture. There is a helpful map of Afghanistan and a glossary of Dari terms in the back.

Book Details:
Under The Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux     2005
275 pp.

The House of Djinn by Suzanne Fisher Staples

The House of Djinn continues the story of Shabanu, ten years into the future. Shabanu has continued to live, hidden from the Amirzai tribal clan, in their very own haveli in Lahore, along with Rahim's sister, Selma and their servant, the Christian woman Samiya. Meanwhile her daughter, Mumtaz (Muti), who lives in the home of her Uncle Omar and his wife Leyla and their son, Jaffar, has grown into a fifteen year old.

The novel opens with Shabanu deciding she has had enough of living in secret. After all these years, she has a deep need to see Mumtaz, and plans to leave the haveli and return to her parent's home in Cholistan to teach the desert women how to read and write. But she first sends a message to Ibne, Rahim's devoted servant, letting him know that she is alive. When Selma discovers that Shabanu has been wandering outside the haveli, she finally agrees to arrange a meeting between Mumtaz and Shabanu. At their meeting, Muti has mixed feelings: she is both happy and angry to learn that her mother is alive. Muti wonders how this will change the plans she has for her life.

Meanwhile, Leyla is still up to her scheming, evil ways, using Muti as a servant and now trying to marry her off to a local farm boy. Muti refers to these and other abuses as her auntie's "thousand pinpricks". She has grown into an independent, intelligent young woman, like her mother. Muti plays tennis at the Lahore Club and often meets her friend Fariel. Her meetings with her friend are a front for secret meetings with Jag, a Hindu boy whom Muti has fallen for. She knows the relationship is a dangerous one because her Muslim family would never allow her to marry a Hindu boy.

Muti has also become good friends with her first cousin once removed, Jameel, a fifteen year old boy who was born and raised in San Francisco. Jameel's family's yearly visits have allowed the two to grow close, sharing stories, secrets and dreams. Like Muti, Jameel has his own dreams and like Muti he has fallen in love with someone who would not be acceptable:  a Jewish girl named Chloe who is a skateboarder. When he and his family suddenly leave San Francisco to fly to Lahore because of Grandfather's illness, he has just begun a relationship with this girl. He wonders what will happen to his life. And he is about the find out that this journey will change his life forever.

Against this family background is the drama of Grandfather's death. Grandfather, who is really Mahsood, Rahim's brother, was the leader of the Amirzai clan. His death means that a new leader must be chosen and the choice is somewhat predictable, given the author's considerable foreshadowing of who that might be. Not only that but these new plans involve Muti in a way that will guarantee and safeguard her life within the clan.

Muti and Jameel rebel against the clan's plan's for their lives. Both Uncle Omar and the maulvi explain to Jameel that he is not American and that he has a duty to the clan. If he turns his back on his family, he will lose them forever. He also tells Jameel that mahabbat or love in Pakistani culture is different from love in America. Love in Pakistan involves "tradition, piety, duty and family." He promises Jameel that he will be able to return to America and that he and Mumtaz will be able to attend college together.

Staples incorporates the idea of the djinn, a spirit, to guide Mumtaz but especially Jameel during this life-changing situation. The djinn is subtly woven in and out of Jameel and Mumtaz's stories. For Jameel it both saves and guides him throughout. For Mumtaz, it indicates that all is not well with Baba. The touch of paranormal in this novel is well done and will be of interest to young readers. The title, The House of Djinn is a reference to the House of Amirzai which is honoured by a spirit that inhabits both the old haveli and the house Omar and Leyla live in.

Overall, The House of Djinn is an enjoyable finale to the Shabanu series. 

It was well written and interesting but it was difficult for me as a Westerner to understand the decision of the Amirzai clan regarding Jameel and Muti. I found it hard to believe that Jameel's family would allow the clan to take a fifteen year old boy, who has lived his entire life in America, marry him off to an equally immature young woman and make him a tribal leader in a country like Pakistan, without telling him until circumstances forced doing so. I also felt it was terrible of Omar to put this responsibility on a boy when he himself refused this same duty to his father years earlier. His response to Jameel was unsatisfactory - that for Pakistan to survive the country needed people like a fifteen year old boy to run the tribal clans and introduce new ideas?? Omar refused Jameel's right to determine what kind of life he wanted to live. Having friends from Pakistan they told me this could happen but it would be very unusual.

I didn't like the author's tendency to give descriptions of events that occurred in previous books. This was repetitive and drew the reader away from the present narrative. For readers new to the series, this means they can pick up the book and read it as a stand alone, but for those who have read the previous two novels, it's a distraction.

Suzanne Staples does a good job of creating an exciting and unexpected climax to the story and using Uncle Omar to explain what will happen to Muti and Jameel. I'd love to see another book perhaps eight years into the future with Muti and Jameel in America, telling us what has happened to them and maybe further developing the storyline of Omar and Shabanu. This series is highly recommended for those readers interested in other cultures.

Book Details:
The House of Djinn by Suzanne Fischer Staples
New York: Frances Foster Books 2008
207 pp.

Haveli by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Haveli is the second book in the Shabanu series. It continues Shabanu's story, six years after her marriage to Rahim, an elderly, powerful clan leader. She lives in the family compound in Okurabad and now has a five year old daughter Mumtaz but has had no other children.

Shabanu is the youngest of Rahim's four wives and the only one he is interested in. Because of this, his other wives, especially his first wife, Amina and her daughter Leyla,  hate Shabanu and make her life miserable. They have also threatened her and she realizes that both she and her daughter are in danger. Shabanu refuses to defend herself and that fuels their hatred. The wives believe she has bewitched Rahim and call her a witch. So as a first step towards protecting herself and Mumtaz, Shabanu moves into a room behind the stables, against Rahim's wishes.

Life in Rahim's family is filled with intrigue and change. Although the women appear to get along with one another, in fact, the opposite is true. "But the women's gentle camaraderie and the laughter that rang out from the family zenana in truth covered up something else. Behind their veils, the women also plotted and schemed, usually one against another, often several against one or two, occasionally all united against one, and that one most frequently was Shabanu."

Shabanu knows that the day will come when she will no longer be able to stay in the family. As the younger wife, from a desert family, with no social standing and no education, she and her daughter are in danger. Shabanu begins to consider that she may have to leave and live in the desert with Auntie Sharma not only for her own safety but especially that of her daughter.

One day when Rahim returns from Lahore, he tells Shabanu that he and his younger brother Nazir have come to an agreement which will settle their feud. Rahim plans to marry his eldest son, Ahmed, who is an "idiot" to Nazir's only child, a daughter named Zabo. Shabanu, who was helped by Zabo when she was prepared for marriage at age twelve, is horrified by this plan. Zabo however is resigned to her fate, because although she is beautiful, she is considered unmarriageable. Nazir is the least successful of the three brothers and is a quarrelsome evil man who has made many enemies.

A second marriage has already been decided upon. Mahsood, who is Rahim's middle brother, will see his son, Omar, marry Leyla who is Rahim and Amina's eldest daughter. Omar will return soon to Pakistan, after studying overseas in America. This marriage will reunite the clans for the first time in over two hundred years. 

To prepare for Zabo's wedding which will take place before that of Leyla's, the entire family moves to Lahore. Shabanu, her daughter Mumtaz, and Zabo stay at the haveli which is Rahim's ancestral home in Lahore. It is rundown but at least they are away from the evil Amina and Leyla and the rest of the scheming wives who stay in the concrete homes in the fashionable Cantonment area.

During her time at the haveli, Shabanu meets Omar and unexpectedly falls in love with him. In Omar, Shabanu discovers what it is to love a man. He treats her with kindness and respect. Shabanu notices that he includes the women in every conversation. But she knows they can never be together. If her feelings were ever discovered she would be put to death.

Zabo does not want to marry Ahmed and she begs Shabanu to help her. Nazir has given her a huge sum of money for her dowry to buy clothing and jewels. Zabo decides that she will buy cheap, imitation jewels and save the money that Nazir has given her to use for her escape into the desert. They make arrangements for Zabo's escape but when the wedding is moved ahead by weeks, events are set in motion that result in a brutal blood feud, with catastrophic results.

Discussion

Suzanne Fisher Staples manages to engage the reader from the beginning to the very end in this beautifully crafted novel about a clan in a specific area of Pakistan. The novel opens with the reader wondering about the future of Shabanu and her daughter Mumtaz. However the reader is quickly drawn into the terrible situation Zabo faces. In the end, Shabanu is in as much danger as Zabo, and her plans to help Zabo, end up involving her too. Layered over this is the theme of a forbidden love which culminates in a truly heartrending scene at the Derawar Fort. Although she tries to push Omar from her heart, her love for him remains buried within her, while a greater love, that for her daughter must take precedence.

Shabanu is a multifaceted character, who is both fascinating and wonderful to read about. She is once again, the strong female character who does not let fate take its course, but instead plans so that she may make her own choices. She is attentive to those around her, recognizing those whose actions indicate an evil heart, and those who truly need help. She saves the servant, Zenat, who is cruelly tortured by the kitchen staff. She recognizes the difficult life her sister, Phulan has, as she bears child after child. She also hopes for more for Mumtaz, whom Amina wishes to make into a kitchen servant.

While the men around her must allow tribal customs to dictate their actions even when they know these decisions will cause great suffering (usually to the women), Shabanu is willing to consider other ways.

Once again Suzanne Staples' writing the unique cultural life of a small part of Pakistan accessible and real. We often talk about books being a window to the world. Ms. Staples opens one such window and letting her readers experience fully the beauty, the tragedy, the good and the bad of one such culture.

Book Details:
Haveli by Suzanne Fisher Staples
New York: Borzoi Books
259 pp.

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Shabanu is the first of three books Suzanne Fisher Staples has written about desert life in Pakistan. The first story is told from the perspective of Shabanu, who is eleven years old when the novel opens. She lives a nomadic life in the Cholistan Desert region of Pakistan. Living with her older sister, Phulan, her Mama and Dadi, and her Auntie and her two small sons, life consists of tending the camel herds and enjoying her last months of childhood in the dusty, wind-storm prone desert.

The novel opens with the birth of a baby camel while its mother is being attacked by vultures. Shabanu manages to save the baby camel whom she names Mithoo. There is also a terrifying fight between two enraged male camels which Dadi, Shabanu and her family struggle to break up. Shabanu's family must now always be on their guard, for camels never forget.

Soon Dadi and Shabanu travel to Sibi to sell their camels at the Great Fair. Dadi gets a good price because his animals are the finest at the fair and they return home wealthy and able to afford expensive gifts for Mama and Phulan. However, for Shabanu, this is a difficult time because Dadi has sold her favourite camel, Guluband. She is angry and hurt at the loss of this treasured animal, but at the same time she comes to terms with the loss.  "But at the center of myself is an aching hole. With Guluband, my joy, my freedom, all of whom I am is gone. I wonder if I will ever take pleasure in anything again."  As it turns out how Shabanu deals with this loss will be preparation towards accepting a more significant loss in the near future. Guluband's sale is a foreshadowing of her own sale later on.

Shabanu's family's life now centers around preparations for two marriages in the next year. It is also one of the main reasons for the sale of camels at Sibi. Older sister Phulan has been betrothed to her cousin, Hamir whom she will marry after the feast of Ramadan this year. It is expected that Shabanu will follow her sister the next year, marrying Hamir's brother Murad, soon after she begins her menses.

Not long after returning home from Sibi, a devastating sandstorm strikes, fatally injuring Grandfather. Out of respect for his wishes, the family takes him to Derawar to die. Too early to travel to Mehrabpur for Phulan's wedding, Shabanu's family waits for a bit and then proceeds to Mehrabpur to meet up with Hamir and Murad. There exists a tense situation between Hamir and Murad, and the former landowner, Nazir Mohammad who sold them a part of his land only to see it flourish under the two brothers' hard work. This tension becomes a crisis soon after Shabanu's arrival, as a result of a chance encounter.

Nazir is known to have quail hunting parties where he usually offers his guests the daughter from a tenant family. When Shabanu's family camps near a canal on her cousins land, they have a run-in with Nazir, who tries to kidnap the girls for his own use. Shabanu, Phulan, Mama and Auntie flee from the enraged Nazir while Dadi, Hamir and Murad try to settle things. However, Shabanu finds the arrangements of the settlement to be horrific. She must marry the brother of the landowner, the kindly Rahim-sahib who is completely smitten with her, so that her family can pay the debt owed to the humiliated rich land owner. Not only that but she loses Murad as her betrothed to her sister. While Shabanu's family is saved because of the desire of Rahim-sahib,  her family has sold her to ensure her sister's happiness and her family's comfort and stability.

Discussion

Shabanu is a beautifully crafted, well paced and fascinating story. The broader storyline of two young girls preparing for marriage is punctuated by interesting events that provide insight into the Cholistan culture and beliefs and which also set the stage for the climax of the novel. Shabanu's narrative is exciting and filled with interesting events that move the story forward.

Shabanu is convincing both as a young girl approaching adolescence with her mixed feelings of growing into a young woman and leaving the joys and carefree times of childhood behind, and as a girl on the cusp of womanhood in a traditional, nomadic Pakistani family. Part of being an adolescent is the search for identity, the answering of the question, "Who am I?". Shabanu doesn't want to marry and wishes she could be like her cousin Sharma whom she admires. She wishes to be free, strong and independent like Sharma. Yet the traditions of her culture require her to be exactly the opposite; to marry whomever her parents choose for her, to be obedient to her husband, and dependent upon his provision.

When she was betrothed to Murad, Shabanu was gradually coming to accept her soon-to-be role as wife and eventually mother. But when she is told that she will no longer marry Murad, but the much older Rahim-sahib, who has three other wives who will hate her and beat her, Shabanu rebels. While outwardly appearing to accept what her father has ordained, Shabanu hides the evidence of her periods to buy herself some time. When her father forces the issue of marriage, Shabanu must choose between family and self. She chooses self and flees only to be caught and beaten. She has lost. Or has she?

It is Sharma and not Shabanu's Mama or Auntie who give Shabanu the strength and a way to accept her fate. She decides she will use Sharma's way and never give her heart to Rahim-sahib, a man she decides she can never love. "The secret is keeping your innermost beauty, the secrets of your soul, locked in your heart," Sharma's voice whispers in my ear, "so that he must always reach out to you for it."  

Shabanu explores the microcosm of Cholistan culture, revealing this fascinating part of Pakistan to young readers the world over. First published in 1995, novels like Shabanu are more relevant than ever, especially given the ongoing events in Afghanistan, Pakistan's northern neighbour. Young people are like young people everywhere; they dream, question, and wish to make their own choices. They also challenge their parents, their culture and and the beliefs and choices of their parents.

 It is obvious that Suzanne Fisher Staples has truly done the significant research she claims. Almost all the characters are based on people she met in Cholistan and almost every scene in Shabanu and Haveli, the second book in the series, is based on stories told to her when she lived in Pakistan. She was inspired to write Shabanu as a result of some of the women she met while working on a literacy project in a rural village in Pakistan's Punjab Province. She realized that women wherever they are, have similar stories and similar issues in their lives.

Some have criticized the author for writing Shabanu, because they feel as an American she cannot possibly be true to a culture that is not her own. However, Shabanu's voice feels authentic. The character of Shabanu is based on a young girl, Maryam, whom Ms. Staples met in Yazmin. This girl was being raised by her grandmother and the two of them also form the basis for the characters Sharma and her daughter Fatima in the novel.

The novels, Haveli and The House of Dijnn  continue the story of Shabanu.
 
Book Details:
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples
New York: Dell Laurel Leaf   2003
240 pp.