When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar

This is a story about deprivation, about how children are seen more as chattel than people to protect and guide, and the extreme circumstances that immigrants often endure, especially when where they come from is not a place they feel they can return to. It follows three Pakistani siblings living in the United States: Noreen, the smart and responsible eldest; Aisha, the angry and unpredictable middle child; and Kausar, the youngest. The author uses some of her own story as material for her fictional family-- the sibling’s mother has been dead for many years, and their father is murdered. After their father’s death, the siblings are forced to live with their Uncle, a man neither of the siblings ultimately trusts. Promising them a life filled with adventure, he instead takes them to a cramped apartment with bird cages lining the walls where they are confined to their rooms, isolated from the outside world except for school, and often left for days at a time without food or money. There develops an intense bond between sisters: caught between American culture and their family’s Pakistani background with no elders to guide them, the girls turn to each other to learn how to navigate a foreign land and culture.