Nadia Hashimi joins “Bookreporter Talks To” to discuss her newest novel, Sparks Like Stars.
The book opens in Afghanistan in 1978, where a ten-year-old girl named Sitara witnesses and survives a government coup that has her entire family slain. She is shepherded to an American Foreign Service officer to flee the country. In her writing, Nadia captures the old Afghanistan–one that is very different from what we know now. The story skips to 2008, where Sitara is now a doctor in the United States. The intervening years have brought her unanswered questions about where her family is buried–something which troubles her and does not allow her memory of them rest. Then someone from her past walks into a hospital exam room and questions begin to be answered.
Nadia is of Afghan heritage, though she was born here in the States. She’s able to share a sharp perspective of an often overlooked part of history. Nadia and Carol talk about the troubled history of American war and politics and how certain questionable behavior from certain countries tread a grey line of morality. The two discuss the effects war has had on culture in unexpected ways and what that means for changing personal decisions as people move on.
Books talked about in this episode:
Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
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Bookaccino Book Club with William Kent Krueger
Bookaccino Book Club with Jeanine Cummins
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