Sparks Like Stars

Nadia Hashimi William Morrow

Ten-year-old Sitari Zamani grows up in a privileged family in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 1978 her world is shattered when her entire family is assassinated, leaving her as the sole survivor.

A soldier smuggles her to safety, leaving her in the hands of Antonia, an American diplomat, and Antonia’s mother Tilly. After a dangerous journey, they manage to get her to the safety of America to begin a new life with a new name – Aryana Shepherd.

Thirty years on, Aryana is a renowned a surgeon in New York. Her world is once again tipped upside down when an elderly patient appears in her exam room – the soldier who saved her, but who may have been involved in the murder of her family. Determined to find the truth, she returns to Kabul where she is forced to face her past.

Powerfully compelling and brutally real, this is a story of tragedy and heartbreak, bravery and survival. I’d highly recommend this – a goody for book clubs!