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A Novel
From bestselling novelist Nadia Hashimi—a gripping, occasionally terrifying, yet ultimately hopeful novel focusing on the women of Afghanistan in the years since the Taliban regained power.
In February 2020 the US began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan after nearly twenty years of occupation. A whole generation of Afghan women had been born during that time—women who had grown up in relative peace, gone to school, entered the professions, even served in the army and Parliament. The women of Afghanistan watched as the Taliban filled the streets again. They knew everything was about to change.
In the bustling, cosmopolitan city of Kabul, women are TV newscasters, shop owners, doctors, teachers, lawyers, even soldiers. They include Marjan, who fought with the Afghan army, and will risk everything to keep her daughter Hawa safe. In her earlier days Marjan was called Rahima and had lived the life of a bacha posh—a girl raised as a boy until she came of age. Forced into an early marriage, Rahima took the name Marjan when she fled her warlord husband. She's created a whole new life for herself, one she will not give up easily.
So has Soraya, who defiantly wore red lipstick as she led the army's all-female combat force over the objections of her upper-class family. Soraya's now a wanted woman whose brother may choose not to shelter her from the Taliban. What will become of her? Or Mina, a journalist and broadcaster whose beautiful face is known to everyone in Kabul—including the new regime?
Fight or flight? Or find a third way? One thing is for certain: none of these women will meekly accept her fate.
An epic saga of fear, resistance, change, and reinvention, City of Widows gives voices to the unforgettable Afghan women at a crossroads of history.
Read a book set in a Middle Eastern country
I had an opportunity to read City of Widows by Nadia Hashimi pre-publication. I recommend it.
-Robin_G
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (5/28/2026)
@Gabi_J I just learned of an upcoming novel City of Widows by Nadia Hashimi on 7/28. It is about a trio of women who experienced a measure of freedom during the American occupation in Afghanistan. Now the Americans have withd...
-Anne_Glasgow
"Hashimi weaves together two equally engrossing stories in her epic, spellbinding debut." —Booklist (starred review)
"The question of whether Sitara can go home again is the existential and physical journey Hashimi conjures, in a story at once surreal and deeply rooted in the history of Afghanistan's modern turmoil and ancient enchantment." —NPR
"Nadia Hashimi's eagerly anticipated new novel is an immersive, compelling, and unforgettable story of resistance, community, and hope in the face of extraordinary hardship. Written with exceptional insight and empathy, City of Widows evokes the past to illuminate the present as only the very best historical fiction can." —Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Resistance Women
"Nadia Hashimi has written, first and foremost, a tender and beautiful family story. Her always engaging multigenerational tale is a portrait of Afghanistan in all of its perplexing, enigmatic glory, and a mirror into the still ongoing struggles of Afghan women." —Khaled Hosseini, author of And the Mountains Echoed and The Kite Runner
This information about City of Widows was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Chris Carter Photography
Nadia Hashimi was born and raised in New York and New Jersey. Both her parents were born in Afghanistan and left in the early 1970s, before the Soviet invasion. Nadia attended Brandeis University where she obtained degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and Biology. She enrolled in medical school in Brooklyn and after graduation went on to complete her pediatric training at NYU/Bellevue hospitals in New York City. On completing her training, Nadia moved to Maryland where she works as a pediatrician. She is married and has three children, and an African Grey parrot.
Link to Nadia Hashimi's Website
Name Pronunciation
Nadia Hashimi: Huh-SHEE-mee
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