When We Were Sisters

An orphan grapples with gender, siblinghood, family, and coming-of-age as a Muslim in America in this lyrical debut novel from the acclaimed author of If They Come For Us

In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, Fatimah Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest, Kausar, grapples with the incomprehensible loss of her parents as she also charts out her own understanding of gender; Aisha, the middle sister, spars with her crybaby younger sibling as she desperately tries to hold on to her sense of family in an impossible situation; and Noreen, the eldest, does her best in the role of sister-mother while also trying to create a life for herself, on her own terms.

As Kausar grows up, she must contend with the collision of her private and public worlds, and choose whether to remain in the life of love, sorrow, and codependency she's known or carve out a new path for herself. When We Were Sisters tenderly examines the bonds and fractures of sisterhood, names the perils of being three Muslim American girls alone against the world, and ultimately illustrates how those who've lost everything might still make homes in each other.

Genres

• Fiction

• LGBT

• Contemporary Fiction

• Literary Fiction

• Adult Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 2022

Literary awards

National Book Award Nominee for Fiction (2022), Aspen Words Literary Prize Nominee for Longlist (2023)

My Verdict

This is the emotional journey of three orphaned Muslim-American siblings. The author Fatimah Asghar is first a poet and in this novel she utilizes a lot of fragmented poetic techniques. It makes the book a little more challenging to read than I would have liked. This is not an easy read, but then again, grief is not an easy emotion and this book is primarily about grief. Yes, they grieve the loss of their parents, but more than that they grieve the loss of any sense of belonging.

This is a novel of sisterhood and finding one's identity and one's place in the world. It is a portrait of heartbreak and emptiness. The story is sad, but for me the fragmented text just never completely came together. I know this was long listed for the 2022 National Book Award, but it just never rose to that level for me. The average rating on Goodreads was 3.94. I gave this one 3 stars.