Summary of Nadia Hashimi's The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Afghan American novelist Nadia Hashimi tells an intergenerational story of two Afghan women whose lives are different but connected. Rahima, a teenage girl, lives in twenty-first-century Afghanistan. In the wake of Taliban rule, Afghanistanâs government is divided and the culture is fractured. Shekiba, Rahimaâs great-great-grandmother, lives in early twentieth-century Afghanistan, under a monarchy. The plot moves back and forth between the two characters, chronicling their lives and the obstacles they face under oppressive patriarchal regimes.
Rahima lives in a small village with her parents, her older sisters Shahla and Parwin, the latter born with a bad hip and a limp, and her younger sisters Rohila and Sitara. Her aunt, Khala Shaima, visits often, helps take care of the family, and tells the girls stories about their great-great-grandmother Shekiba. RahimaâsâŚ