Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples – first published 2006
Najmah lives with her parents and her elder brother Nur, who farm in a remote village in the Kunduz Hills in North Afghanistan. The family is torn apart in 2001 when her father and Nur are taken away by the Taliban and then her mother and newly born brother are killed in an American bombing raid. Najmah sets off with some other refugees from the same village to walk across the mountains to Peshawar in Pakistan in search of her father and brother. In Peshawar she is cared for by Nusrat, an American Muslim who is waiting anxiously for her Afghan doctor husband to return from working in Afghanistan. In the meantime she has set up a school for refugee children in her garden. Don’t expect a happy ending because there isn’t one. The book is written for teenagers and is a worthwhile and informative read. 7/10
30th January 2010
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