Sparks Like Stars

January 11, 2021
A woman grapples with traumatic memories of the 1978 Afghanistan coup in Hashimi’s intimate if lackluster latest (after A House Without Windows). Precocious Sitara Zalmani, 10, spends her days in Kabul’s presidential palace, where her father is an adviser to the president. During the coup, Sitara’s family is murdered in front of her before a palace guard, Shair Nabi, whisks her to safety and foists her off on Antonia Shephard, an American embassy worker. Antonia, along with her mother, hatches a plan to use Sitara’s American-born, deceased sister’s birth certificate to bring her to the U.S. But things fall apart at customs, and Sitara winds up in a foster home. By 2008, Sitara, now Aryana, is an oncological surgeon in New York City and has reunited with Antonia. Her boyfriend, Adam, doesn’t know her full history and tries to tap her for help with fund-raising for his political career just as Shair unexpectedly shows up as a patient. With her relationship deteriorating and Shair’s reappearance bringing memories to the surface, Aryana returns to Afghanistan with Antonia in an attempt to find some peace. While Hashimi rushes through Aryana’s intervening years in the U.S., and the plot is fairly predictable, she does a good job developing Aryana’s character. Still, this one fails to leave a mark. Agent: Helen Heller, the Helen Heller Agency.

February 1, 2021
In Afghanistan in 1978, 10-year-old Sitara spends as much time at the royal palace as she does at home thanks to her father's role as an advisor to the president. Sitara's happy world is abruptly destroyed one night in April when dissidents storm the palace and execute the president and his family, along with Sitara's parents and younger brother. A guard saves Sitara from certain death, first bringing her to his home and then foisting her on an American diplomat named Antonia Shepherd. Antonia and her mother, Tilly, protect Sitara and plan to get her out of Afghanistan by using the identity of her older sister, Aryana, who was born in the United States and died as a baby. After several unexpected twists, Antonia ends up raising Sitara and providing her with stability and love so that she can put the trauma of her childhood behind her--until three decades later, when Sitara, now a successful oncologist, comes face-to-face with a figure from her past. Hashimi's latest novel for adults, following A House without Windows (2016), is both thrilling and moving.

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