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.