The House of Djinn by Suzanne Fisher Staples

In this third book of the trilogy (Daughter of the Wind; Under the Same Stars; The House of Djinn) Fisher Staples continues to write beautifully about the lives of women in tribal Islamic society.

Shabanu lives a half life in the summer pavillion on the roof of a haveli, ten years after staging her own death to save the life of her child Mumtaz. Mumtaz is now 15 and her only relief from life with her half sister Layla who treats her as a servant, insists on being called Auntie and tormets Mumtaz as Layla's mother Amina did Shabanu, is when her cousin Jameel returns from San Francisco to spend the summer in Lahore. But then secrets begin to unravel, Jameel's beloved grandfather Baba dies and Nazir, who killed his own brother Rahim, (the tribal leader, Shabanu's husband and Mumtaz's father) moves to take control of the tribe. There is a real strength in there not being a westernised conventional happy ever after, instead, the conclusions really make you think about what it means to act as an adult and about the quality of love. A good conclusion to the series but not as heartbreaking as the first two.

Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Beautifully written and packed with the sights and smells of Cholistani nomadic desert life, this is the story of Shabanu, whose name means Princess. Aged 12 she and her older sister Phulan and herself are both betrothed and this book is on one level about Shabanu growing up, but also an amazing depiction of a society and landscape completely alien to a reader in wet, cold, November Scotland, a society where women have to learn to obey and the rule is of father, brother and husband and how a girl can retain herself within those strictures.

After having fallen in love with 'Under The Same Stars', the second book in the three book series (Daughter of the Wind; Under the Same Stars; The House of Djinn) I was eager to read the prequel and I wasn't disappointed.

Under The Same Stars by Suzanne Fisher Staples (published in the United States as Haveli)

Although this is in theory written for older teenagers, I would recommend this well written tale to anyone.

Shabanu was born in the Cholistan area of Pakistan and raised in the desert, Staples' prequel Daughter of the Wind tells this part of the story and of her marriage to wealthy powerful landowner Rahim as repayment by Shabanu's father for his protection.

In Under the Same Stars Shabanu and her daughter Mumtaz are living in constant fear of the cruelty inflicted on them by Rahim's three older wives in their jealously and rage at Shabanu's inability to conform to their social standards. Brief respites are Shabanu's visits to her parents and moving to the family havela in Lahore where she can live in peace away from Rahim's other wives, but it is not long before the strictures of duty to family, where deviation is punished by death, rear up and tragedy returns.

A wonderful story that really educated me about the life of women in a society where they are chattels, have little rights and are effectively bought and sold and falling in love is a hopeless destrutive thing but without stereotyping the men or the women, rather, Staples creates wonderfully rendered characters that you fall in love with. I can't wait to read the sequel, The House of Djinn

The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush to Razgrad by Shelia Paine

An extraordinary travelogue as Paine travels through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey in search of the origins of a triangular amulet. She somehow communicates with people with whom she has no language in common and writes of people so without possessions that a local British calendar is a real gift. Makes me more determined to make my tread lighter on the earth. And unlike Thubron Paine is female and there is one episode where she has to jump over muddy streams from the roadside in a burkha, she is regularly asked where her husband is and has to be constantly on her guard against assualt. So many situations where she appears fine and I would have been scared witless!