When the Moon Is Low

A Novel

By: Nadia Hashimi

Narrated by: Sneha Mathan, Neil Shah

The unforgettable story of an Afghan family’s escape from the Taliban and perilous trek across Europe to seek asylum, led by one extraordinarily courageous woman. This is the second novel by Nadia Hashimi, the author of last year’s breakout The Pearl That Broke Its Shell.

Mahmoud’s passion for his wife, Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she’s ever known. But their happy, middle-class world - a life of education, work, and comfort - 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 has one hope to survive: She 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. Exhausted and brokenhearted but undefeated, Fereiba manages to smuggle them as far as Greece. But in a busy market square, their fate takes a frightening turn when her teenage son, Saleem, becomes separated from the rest of the family.

Faced with an impossible choice, Fereiba pushes on with her daughter and baby, while Saleem falls into the shadowy underground network of undocumented Afghans who haunt the streets of Europe’s capitals. Across the continent Fereiba and Saleem struggle to reunite and ultimately find a place where they can begin to reconstruct their lives.

©2015 Nadia Hashimi (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

A lovely, honest look at the immigrant experience

I love Hashimi’s poetic language throughout. The story stirred intense empathy in my heart and I loved each character met on Saleem’s long journey. My only complaint was the abrupt ending. I just wanted a chapter more. Some hugging and tears. Or just hugging.

Good story

It was pretty good. A little clunky at times but overall enjoyable and worth the read.

Love the story

Great story but I lost interest when the male voice starts to narrate. I could see the person reading, he lacks emotion. On the other hand the woman voice is exquisite, I got transportes into the story

Touching story, well narrated.

Touching story , well narrated. It shows the reality of human struggle to survive in many parts of the world.

Simply amazing!

Sad story, amazing details! Narrations are professional. Hope to have more novels like these. Refugees stories are heartbreaking.

Resielience

The beginning of this novel, is like poetry. I loved it!!! I thought it was written with delicacy, avoiding the really horrible details.

My congratulations to both the author and the interpreter. Thank you, for letting me spend, some good time listening to this Novel and learning more of Afganistán….

Good story. Poor ending

Good book. Well rounded characters, but I was disappointed with the ending. I felt like I left in the dark

The missing ending….

I feel like they forgot to include the last 3 chapters of the book!! I loved the story all the way through and then at the end, the story ends abruptly and you don’t even know what happens to the family. Very disappointed….

Disappointing ending.

The ending left you wondering and worrying about all the characters. So many questions, concerning.

Beautiful but heartbreaking story

Loved every minute of it. Suspenseful, beautiful and real. Narration was amazing. Would absolutely recommend.