The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
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Narrated by:
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Mozhan Navabi
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By:
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Nadia Hashimi
About this listen
Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.
In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.
But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-great grandmother, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way.
Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive?
©2014 Nadia Hashimi (P)2024 William Morrow PaperbacksListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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Everyone knows that Addie Fullbright can’t keep a secret. Yet, twelve years ago, as her best friend lay dying, she entrusted Addie with the biggest secret of all. One so shattering that Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. Now she’s living a lonely life, keeping everyone at a distance. But when her beloved aunt gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again.
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The narration
- By A. Rebecca Owens on 11-17-24
By: Heather Webber, and others
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A House Without Windows
- A Novel
- By: Nadia Hashimi
- Narrated by: Ariana Delawari, Susan Nezami
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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For two decades Zeba was a loving wife, a patient mother, and a peaceful villager. But her quiet life is shattered when her husband, Kamal, is found brutally murdered with a hatchet in the courtyard of their home. Nearly catatonic with shock, Zeba is unable to account for her whereabouts at the time of his death. Her children swear their mother could not have committed such a heinous act. Kamal's family is sure she did and demands justice.
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For the want of the right reader
- By chris on 08-25-16
By: Nadia Hashimi
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When the Moon Is Low
- A Novel
- By: Nadia Hashimi
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Neil Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Mahmoud’s passion for his wife, Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she’s ever known. But their happy, middle-class world implodes when their country is engulfed in war and the Taliban rises to power. Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with her three children, Fereiba must find a way to cross Europe and reach her sister’s family in England. With forged papers and help from kind strangers they meet along the way, Fereiba make a dangerous crossing into Iran under cover of darkness.
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Good story. Poor ending
- By Janine on 01-14-22
By: Nadia Hashimi
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Sparks Like Stars
- A Novel
- By: Nadia Hashimi
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara’s world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Only she survives.
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Amazing
- By Lisa on 03-26-21
By: Nadia Hashimi
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One Half from the East
- By: Nadia Hashimi
- Narrated by: Ariana Delawari
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Obayda's family is in need of some good fortune, and her aunt has an idea to bring the family luck - dress Obayda, the youngest of four sisters, as a boy, a bacha posh. Life in this in-between place is confusing, but once Obayda meets another bacha posh, everything changes. Their transformation won't last forever, though - unless the two best friends can figure out a way to make it stick and make their newfound freedoms endure.
By: Nadia Hashimi
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Spilled Ink
- By: Nadia Hashimi
- Narrated by: Ariana Delawari
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In this insightful and affecting YA novel by well-loved author of books for adults and middle graders Nadia Hashimi, an Afghan American teenager's small town is thrown into controversy and violence when her brother, taking a stand against hatred, plays a prank that some think went too far…
By: Nadia Hashimi
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A Certain Kind of Starlight
- A Novel
- By: Heather Webber, Kiara Ronaghan
- Narrated by: Hallie Ricardo
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone knows that Addie Fullbright can’t keep a secret. Yet, twelve years ago, as her best friend lay dying, she entrusted Addie with the biggest secret of all. One so shattering that Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. Now she’s living a lonely life, keeping everyone at a distance. But when her beloved aunt gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again.
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The narration
- By A. Rebecca Owens on 11-17-24
By: Heather Webber, and others
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The Color of Our Sky
- A Novel
- By: Amita Trasi
- Narrated by: Zehra Jane Nacqvi, Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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India, 1986: Mukta, a 10-year-old village girl from the lower-caste Yellama cult, has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high-spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past.
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Fast moving ,gripping ,emotional ,well depicted.
- By Amazon CustomerAmeeta Adur on 10-09-17
By: Amita Trasi
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Polite Calamities
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Gold
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Winifred is blunt, opinionated, and outrageously colorful. In a community that demands domesticity, she simply doesn’t fit. When her wealthy husband suddenly dies, Winifred’s fellow society housewives no longer have a reason to play nice. Cast out entirely, Winifred throws roaring parties for the clerks and waiters that serve the town, finding the connections she’s been craving—and upsetting the gentle balance of her elite neighborhood in the process.
By: Jennifer Gold
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As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
- By: Zoulfa Katouh
- Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion.
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Tell me something good
- By Robert on 02-11-24
By: Zoulfa Katouh
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A Woman Is No Man
- A Novel
- By: Etaf Rum
- Narrated by: Ariana Delawari, Dahlia Salem, Susan Nezami
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Three generations of Palestinian-American women living in Brooklyn are torn between individual desire and the strict mores of Arab culture in this powerful debut - a heart-wrenching story of love, intrigue, courage, and betrayal that will resonate with women from all backgrounds, giving voice to the silenced and agency to the oppressed.
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Powerful and Terrifying
- By Emmst51 on 05-04-19
By: Etaf Rum
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The Beautiful Ones
- A Novel
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis- neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse - and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip. When entertainer Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled.
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Beautifully Written, Beautifully Boring, Horrifically Slow
- By Mary D on 04-29-21
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A Kingdom to Claim
- By: Sian Ann Bessey
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Aisley’s young life was changed forever when her father accompanied King Alfred into battle and lost his life in a deadly skirmish with the Vikings. Now, almost seven years later, the Vikings are once again rallying on Wessex’s borders, and Aisley fears that her older brother may have treacherous plans to betray the king by aligning himself with the invading Norsemen. But when Aisley encounters a handsome nobleman in the market, she feels the first stirrings of hope. Though they met only once when Aisley was little more than a child, she recognizes the man immediately.
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Solid historical romance
- By calissta7 on 08-16-24
By: Sian Ann Bessey
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When We Were Young & Brave
- A Novel
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Rosie Jones, Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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China, December 1941. Having left an unhappy life in England for a teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth Kent is now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for Elspeth, and those in her charge. Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School, protected by her British status.
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heart wrenching And inspiring!!
- By Justin Drogoszewski on 11-22-20
By: Hazel Gaynor
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The Secret of Elephants
- By: Vasundra Tailor
- Narrated by: Sharmila Devar
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Navsari, India. Penniless and trapped in a loveless marriage, Nirmala spends her days anxiously caring for her sick young son, Varun. Looming over Nirmala’s impoverished home is an imposing mansion built by her grandfather, and from its balcony her cruel aunt scorns them, refusing to help in any way. But when a mysterious letter addressed to her long-dead father arrives from Zimbabwe, it opens a door to a past Nirmala never knew existed and a future she never imagined possible.
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Cultural read
- By Teresa Marino on 09-12-24
By: Vasundra Tailor
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The Story Collector
- By: Evie Woods
- Narrated by: Heather O’Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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One hundred years ago, Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor translate fairy stories from Irish to English. But all is not as it seems and Anna soon finds herself at the heart of a mystery that threatens her very way of life. In New York in the present day, Sarah Harper boards a plane bound for the West Coast of Ireland. But once there, she finds she has unearthed dark secrets – secrets that tread the line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen.
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LOVED IT!!!!
- By Erin on 08-17-24
By: Evie Woods
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And the Mountains Echoed
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini, Navid Negahban, Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Khaled Hosseini, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.
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Does the End Justify the Means
- By FanB14 on 05-24-13
By: Khaled Hosseini
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The Royal Librarian
- By: Daisy Wood
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Windsor, 1940: War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace. Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must sacrifice everything she knows to save the future queen of England. Philadelphia, Present day: Digging into her great aunt’s family tree, Lacey Turner comes across a mysterious book bearing the stamp of Windsor Castle’s royal bindery. But how did it come to be in her family’s possession?
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Incredible story!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-31-24
By: Daisy Wood
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Salt Houses
- By: Hala Alyan
- Narrated by: Leila Buck
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967.
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A Palestinian Family in Exile
- By zaina on 08-25-17
By: Hala Alyan
What listeners say about The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ljm
- 10-10-24
Beautiful story of triumph
Well written. Though the narrative slips between two centuries the flow is overall smooth. I found myself truly caring about the plight of the characters. There were a couple of times I felt it was close to predictable but even then there were aspects and twists that I had not seen coming. This is an amazing debut novel.
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- Mamata Ghosh
- 09-28-24
The miserable lives of Afghan women
Very well written and the flow of the story is very smooth. Enjoyed it a lot
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- Lydia
- 08-01-24
I rarely read but I read this and listened to it twice now:)
This book is a must read. Between my sobs and my acknowledgment of my own privilege, I feel I’m a better person after understanding this story.
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- Kim
- 10-04-24
strength and heartbreak
this unique story painted pictures in my mind about a world I thankfully do not know. I feel there are many lessons to take away.
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