When We Were Sisters

Pakistani-Kashmiri American poet Asghar’s (If They Come for Us) debut novel follows three Pakistani American sisters through a bleak childhood marked by grief and neglect. Noreen, Aisha, and Kausar lost their mother years ago; now, after their father’s sudden death, they are orphaned. They are taken in by their corrupt uncle, who stows them in a shoddy apartment filled with turtles, birds, and other animals. He lives elsewhere but keeps the girls in this desperate limbo as he draws on their inheritance. Hungry and unsupported, the girls grow into adults, struggling to do right by each other and themselves. Farah Kidwai, Kamran Khan, and Deepti Gupta narrate, with Kidwai taking the lead and telling the story through Kausar’s eyes. Khan gives voice to the girls’ father (“Him”), and Gupta provides a brief, but graceful appearance as their mother (“Her”). While Kidwai skillfully captures the lyricism of Asghar’s words, listeners may be disoriented by experimental parts of the book that don’t translate well into audio, including pages with the text written vertically and sentences separated by large gaps.