Call Her Freedom
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A “rich and beautifully crafted multigenerational epic” (Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter) following one woman’s struggle to protect her culture and her family amidst the backdrop of a military occupation.
Aisha and her mother, Noorjahan, live on the outskirts of their remote mountain village nestled among the Himalayas—two women alone in a world dominated by men. As the village midwife, Noorjahan teaches Aisha how to heal using local herbs and remedies.
When Aisha’s hand is betrothed to a local boy, she is forced to abandon her dreams of going to university. Soon her mother’s secrets come back to haunt her, and Aisha’s marriage and a growing military presence force her to make impossible choices in order to save her family and preserve the independence Noorjahan fought for. What follows is a family chronicle brimming with life, love, and humor, about sacrifice and honor and fighting for your home and culture in the face of occupation.
Call Her Freedom is a deeply moving novel about one woman’s love for her family, and an epic investigation of colonialism, militarization, and loss of innocence on the journey to creating home. Spanning 1969 to 2022, this is a love story that untangles family secrets and heals generational wounds, announcing Tara Dorabji as a thrilling new voice in fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Dorabji's stirring debut, a Himalayan family is torn apart by war. It begins in 1974, when eight-year-old Aisha's father, Babek, leaves their village to join a guerrilla force, hoping to free their land, a thinly veiled Kashmir, from an unidentified colonial regime (the real Kashmir is partitioned into Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani territories). Aisha's mother, Noorjahan, a midwife who teaches her daughter about healing herbs and tinctures, also runs a clandestine opium business, growing a huge field of poppies in a meadow near their home. She intends to use the proceeds for Aisha's education. When Aisha is 17, Noorjahan dies from the flu, and Aisha is married off to her teacher's son, Alim, upending her plan to study at a university. By the 1990s, Aisha is a devoted mother to their two children, but after Alim learns she's been raped by soldiers, his impotent shame and her humiliation over what happened cause a rift between them. Aisha also weathers the return of Babek after a 20-year absence; following a long and torturous imprisonment, he's a shell of who he once was. There's little narrative momentum, and the murky geopolitical details tend to frustrate, but Dorabji thoroughly explores the theme of resilience as the story extends to 2022, when Aisha makes a tincture to help ward off a mysterious pandemic. Book clubs will enjoy this character-driven drama.
