Jameela

Book excerpt: 'Come, Jameela. Stand right here. I need to do something.' I grab hold of his sleeve. 'Where are you going?' His face is twisted. He doesn't look at me. 'Never mind.' Jameela lives with her family in a war-torn village in Afghanistan. Life is hard, but when her mother dies, and her father remarries, Jameela has to face a greater horror. To survive she draws on the strong sense of self that her mother gave her. Based on a real girl called Sameela, and a real orphanage, this unforgettable novel tells the story of a devout Muslim girl and what life is really like in post-Taliban Afghanistan. 'Jameela is such an intriguing, inspiring character.a beautiful and life-affirming story.' - Randa Abdel-Fattah, author of Does My Head Look Big in This?