House Number 12 Block Number 3

by Sana Balagamwala

Karachi, Pakistan (20th century) – Nadia has changed. She has been waking up in the middle of the night in fits of anxiety, avoiding her friends and family, and skipping her university classes. With the recent death of her father, Haji Rahmat, Nadia’s condition has further spiraled. There is no acceptable diagnosis for her behavior, and speculations abound: she may have a rare disease, she may be possessed by a jinn, or perhaps she is inclined to madness. Whatever the cause of this mysterious affliction, Zainab, Nadia’s mother, is at pains to keep it hidden from the community at large; she is worried Nadia will be labeled as mad, and she knows all too well the taboos that mental illness brings with it.

While the country tethers on political unrest, and Nadia seems to get worse by the day, the family searches desperately for the cause of, and the cure for their daughter’s mysterious malady.

House Number 12 Block Number 3, the home that has sheltered the Rahmat family for decades, narrates and recollects past events, trying to absolve itself of the burden it feels of being privy to the real reason for Nadia’s turmoil, but not being able to do anything about it.

Genres: Fiction, Pakistan, Historical Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 21

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have an expression about wanting to be a fly on the wall so that we can eavesdrop on others. But what if you could be the wall? In House Number 12 Block Number 3, by Sana Balagamwala, the house itself tells the story after hearing all kinds of conversations over decades. The price of this gift, however, is that no one can hear the house when it really wants to spill secrets and shout warnings to the family it shelters within its walls...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is quite a story, and all told from the point of view of a house. Definitely a "if walls could talk" kind of story, which I found was a neat way to tell this story.
There is a lot going on in this book and it touches on war, culture, mental illness stigma, death, and family. I really enjoyed this book and it was well written.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Hidden Shelf Publishing House and Sana Balagamwala for this advanced reader copy and debut novel! My opinion about this book is my own.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved learning about Pakistan culture and history!

This story is unique!! The story is told through the observations of...THE HOUSE! A house who sees all the goings on but cannot say one word!!
This is a family of four. A father, Haji Rahmat. A mother, Zainab. Two children, Junaid, a son and Nadia, a daughter. The story goes back and forth between present and past. Haji Rahmat and Zainab move into this beautiful house to raise a family. First, Junaid is born and the couple couldn't be happier. When Zainab is expecting again, Haji Rahmat prays that this time they will have a girl...and so they do!! The family is happy and healthy!

However, at age seven, Nadia changes. What has caused such a change in a well rounded little girl? She is smart, outgoing, beautiful and sick. Her mother tries to keep this under wraps...and then with the political unrest in the country, things get somewhat chaotic in Nadia's life and the family's, in general. Somehow, Nadia comes back to herself for a bit.

When Nadia, at 17, is preparing for marriage, doing well in school and looking toward a bright future, her father dies suddenly. Nadia spirals back into the darkness...not eating, locking her door, and disengaging in life. Her mother knows that this is a death sentence in the Pakistani world; to be deemed "mad". So she tries everything to bring Nadia back to life.

This is where I learned what a "jinn" was. I also learned about arranged marriages, a woman's shame of kept secrets or unjust behavior and mental illness in another country. The power of believing in family when society controls a destination is unheard of and shocking.

What is wrong with Nadia? Can she overcome the struggle that she is conflicted with? Has the Jinn taken control?

In my humble opinion, this was a powerful read! A learning experience! And an enjoyable debut book!

On Bookstagram, I see that people want to read diversified books and authors...but, I don't see anyone looking to read a book unless a ton of people have already reviewed it. I find this sad!! Step up to the plate and be the person to pick up a unique book! This was a truly engaging story and I would hope that it will be read by many! ~Congratulations to Sana Balagamwala!! I look forward to reading your future publications!!

[Anjana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the writing in this story the highlight. It draws you in little by little. The story begins at one point in the timeline and moves back and forth before showing us a more recent update (although that is still not contemporary).
The house tells the story (which is not a spoiler, given that the blurb mentions it). It took me a while to warm up to the voice, but once I did, I found it a very entertaining way of watching things unfold.
The family has been residing in the house ever since their displacement after the partition of the subcontinent (or near enough). The former residents faced a similar situation when they had to up and leave. We hear that the girl of the house has a sort of mental issue seen by different people in differing ways. We are not left in the dark like the rest of the family is. An in-depth tour of the family, their bonds and their extended connections are provided to us.
In that context, I must say that the scene towards the revelation end reminded me of an Indian movie which had a similar reaction by the parent; in that case, it was the father/uncle, whereas here, it was the mother.
The story is set in a time and place which was illuminating and provides a viewpoint (the house notwithstanding) that few would have had a chance to explore before.
As is obvious, I liked the narrative style and storytelling fashion, but the plot itself was not as much of a draw to me. I felt like it could have been a shorter narrative with the central plot staying the same. In fact, it felt like a short story/novella at times.
I still recommend this to anyone who finds the blurb even remotely interesting because it is not a usually explored territory, country and period wise.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

[AllAboutBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

House Number 12 Block Number 3 is Sana Balagamwala's latest fiction book set in 20th century Karachi. I was so excited to get this book by an author of Pakistani origin, that too from my home city of Karachi. If you do not know Sana, here is a little bit about this amazing Pakistani writer:

Sana Balagamwala grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. She has a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Southern California, and a Master's in Education from Loyola Marymount University. She is also pursuing a Master's in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. English is her second language, and she is fluent in Urdu and Hindi. House Number 12 Block Number 3 is her debut novel.It was released overseas a few weeks ago but now it is available exclusively on Chapters bookstore in Pakistan. You can get it here: https://chapters.pk/products/house-nu... It is an assured debut on a subject that has been swept under the rug for far too long.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was an examination of grief and loss from the unique perspective of the house the Rahmat’s live within. There was also consistent commentary on the political instability of Pakistan which I found insightful. I found the story disconnecting at times but overall a really unique, fresh perspective needed on what grief, loss & family looks like. The ending is the strongest part of this book by far.

[Habiba Khalid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the writing style 😍 i love every word of this book. This is our society where parents don't know why there kids behaviour changes suddenly. And we believe in jins and supernaturally things then try to figure out the root cause of the problem. I request every parent plz do not let any one play with ur kids feelings and if they don't want to meet a specific person then plz try to figure out the reason don't force them. 🙏

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a simple yet deeply poignant read. The themes explored here are so timely and should be more talked about elsewhere. The book was written entirely from the point-of-view of the titular house, the one whose address is house number 12 block number 3. It's something I've never read in a book before. The voice of the house was simple and minimalistic, aka no embellishments of literary terms or something like that. I enjoyed the point-of-view. I'm always up for something new and exciting. This story, while it was quiet and mostly uneventful, was set during a eventful time in Pakistan. With the political atmosphere so turbulent and chaotic in the background, the characters in the book face things that aren't very turbulent in the worlds of fiction but they are if they happened in real life. Although the story is from the point-of-view of a house, the main characters are the family who live in it, especially the mother and the youngest child—the only daughter—of the family.

The book is set in Karachi from 1957 to 1988. At the beginning, the titular house was empty for a decade after its Hindu owners vacated it and departed for India. In 1957, a young Muslim businessman, Haji Rahmat, and his newly married wife, Zainab, arrive at the house. Pretty soon, the long vacant house is filled with their children and the staff. While the newly born country of Pakistan struggles to hold on to a stable government, the household of the house number 12 of block number 3 settles in a comfortable, familiar routine. As new scenarios are introduced to the political climate of Pakistan, new faces arrive in house number 12 too. We meet characters who have significant effects on the main ones. We meet background characters who, though not leave a significant effect, do color the situations for the readers. The House, the sentient sentry who witnesses things nobody else can see behind locked doors, silently observes and informs the reader. Nothing is stated explicitly but the House paints to the readers enough pictures to read between the lines and form a conclusion. While you read, like the House, you'll feel like an omnipresent, omniscient narrator. If you're up for this kind of narrative style, pick up this book.

I loved the main characters of the book, particularly Nadia and her mother, Zainab, who often locks horns and clashes with their opposing views. Zainab is old-fashioned and conservative while Nadia is more progressive and leftist leaning. Throughout the book, Zainab mostly fails to understand and support Nadia with her life choices and decisions. But the ending was so heartwarming and heart-wrenching at the same time. I loved how their relationship was so mercurial, multidimensional, and colorful, as most mother-daughter relationships are in real life. They are the only two characters in the book who develop palpable changes in their character arcs. The rest are mostly one dimensional, flat characters. I wish we had more history about the House's origin and the previous owners, the Malhotras, why they sealed the door of the previous storage room, and their last days in the house. The supernatural angle felt unexplored too. It could've been so much more exciting if the author made the supposed jinn's presence more in the story.

I couldn't give it five stars because of some things. Firstly, the author spelled the capital of Bangladesh/East Pakistan as Dhaka, not Dacca, which, with the context of the timeline, isn't historically accurate. Dhaka the spelling came to be in 1982/1983, imposed by President Hussain Mohammad Ershad. However, not including the flashbacks, the story was set during 1981 when the spelling Dacca was used. Given that the book is written in present tense, the story therefore isn't one long reminiscence of the House decades later, rather the things were happening as they were happening. Furthermore, the author didn't, in my eyes, properly narrated the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. At first, I was ready to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was trying to present the House as an apolitical, anti-war entity, as a neutral presence. However, in the author's note, she mentions the history book by Sarmila Bose, whose accounts of the war have already been dismissed by the historians as faulty and inaccurate. Seeing Ms. Balagamwala seeking research help from such a flawed account of the war while plenty more historically accurate books exist is very disheartening as a Bengali. I wish she'd rather sought research help from the books by journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, whose account was the first one that showed the world the war crimes committed by the Pakistani army on the Bengalis. All these things made me deduct a star from my review and also soured my mind. Nevertheless, I'd recommend this book if you're up for a realistic historical fiction from the point-of-view of a house and one that explores themes like childhood sexual assaults, traumas, stigmas around mental health in South Asia, and feminism.

Thank you, NetGalley and Hidden Shelf Publishing, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Shivangi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a house, as you can already tell by the title, that has seen and heard things, that it wants to tell others about but it can’t. It gives out subtle hints but obviously nobody notices and it has to keep the burden of the knowledge of it all through all these years, and watch silently as each one unravel.

The story mostly is a coming-of-age novel about a little girl, Nadia who grows up in times of political unrest and childhood trauma.

It goes without saying but please look out for trigger warnings: child abuse and childhood trauma

It is a story about how people just don’t notice when things go wrong and how gravely it affects some people. House number 12 block number 3 traces a period of several years in Pakistan about a family but mostly Nadia, whose father had recently died. Nadia hasn’t come out of her room since a very long time, she doesn’t eat and she’s always having nightmares that there’s someone in her room that is going to cause her harm.

I honestly don’t want to write much about this book because I fear if I talk more, I’ll spoil everything and if I do that, I won’t be able to forgive myself because this book was absolutely *chef’s kiss* for what it was trying to portray through the story!

So let’s quickly jump to my opinion…

I just loved loved loved the way this book has represented trauma and mental health problems without even once explaining or showing explicitly what actually happened with Nadia. There was no mention of what happened and the details, the how’s and the what’s. Still as a reader you would have an idea what IS actually happening with Nadia.

Basically, all that this book focuses is on how Nadia RESPONDING to what actually happened to her that led to her trauma and how exactly does her trauma affect her daily life even though that happened to her ages ago.

This is something that is almost never done well in books. Whenever we talk about child abuse or anything traumatic, we SHOW the details. Because that’s what we’ve been told to do in writing fiction. But not a lot of people know that this is what you must not do (must not show the details, that is) when you’re trying so sensitive.

Anyway, I just love how this author has done it well and when so many other writers don’t do it, at that. Love it. I hope that other authors and aspiring writers take inspiration from this book and write sensitively of topics that can be traumatic for people.

Also, did I mention how accurately Nadia’s trauma has been portrayed? I’m speechless. I wish I had the talent to write things that were so thought provoking!

The writing was also atmospheric and descriptive. The whole thing is told from the perspective of the house and so it almost felt like I was transported inside the book, into the lives of the family members that lived in the house, hearing the house tell their stories in its old croaky voice. The characters were very realistic as well as rounded in personality. The story is set several years after the India-Pakistan partition and is written from the perspective of Pakistan, which was another interesting factor that I’ve not come across in all the books I’ve read so far, being an Indian.

The only thing that did bother me throughout this book’s reading journey was the fact that this book also focuses on a lot of things unnecessarily for they didn’t add much to advance the story. For example, there are several mentions of the family living in the house thinking that there’s a jinn (a spirit of sorts) in the house that’s causing Nadia so much trouble. To an extent this was entertaining but at one point it made the story feel stretched to longer parts. Many other things kept becoming the main focus of the story and it did take me, as a reader, a while to understand what this whole book is all about in totality. This is only my personal opinion however that I just feel some parts were given more focus than they deserved in actuality. This in my understanding also slowed the pacing of the book.

The rest was done well and I have no other complaints. I wish that other people read this book too for when I finished reading it, my heart didn’t feel empty. It was a nice, tidy, tied with a satin ribbon ending that leaves you complete and satisfied. I didn’t feel like I need more from this book but in a good way, in a finished-but-i-am-satisfied kind of way.

I guess overall I would like to give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars! I’m so happy to have read this book. None of this would have happened, had it not been for Netgalley. So, my thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes reading about heavy topics written well and people who like reading about mental health with a satisfying, powerful ending.

[Melina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review on melinas.blog

You probably already know that writing about trauma can help you heal from it and people who are dealing with personal tragedies are often advised by mental health professionals to keep a diary. But it doesn't just work on an individual level. Humans have been using the medium of art to voice collective trauma for ages. Through books, paintings, sculptures, music, movies, plays and all other forms of art, collective trauma is transformed into a type of collective memory that serves to redefine what it means to be a member of that collective. This type of art acknowledges the trauma and the fact that the collective's essence has been changed forever, but by emphasizing the strength its members have shown it creates a new and positive narrative - that of survival. Some of the most well-known examples of this are books and movies about the Holocaust or Black slavery but trauma can be found in the art of most places in the world.

House Number 12 Block Number 3 is told in exquisitely colourful prose from the perspective of a house, an all-knowing but powerless bystander in the unravelling of events in Pakistan from the 195os to the 1980s - mass violence, riots, wars and massacres. But at the heart of the story, and the house, we find Nadia, a young girl born into a wealthy family, who is loved by everyone around her and supposed to have a wonderful life. When things go awry for Nadia, the house despairs in not being able to help her or alert any of her loved ones to Nadia's suffering.

The spiral of pain that Nadia goes down coincides with the pain of her country. As the people of Pakistan go missing, get hurt or killed, and the country gets more and more destroyed by war and politics, Nadia too sinks deeper into anxiety and depression and becomes an empty shell of her former self. Her odd behaviour is seen as rebellious or explained by the possible presence of a jinn on the premises, and instead of getting the help she needs, Nadia is forced to go to school, entertain guests and meet with potential future husbands.

But one of the things I adore about this novel is that it's not the type of story that would just leave you scarred with no actual benefit. It's direct about the suffering and horrors Pakistan as a whole and Nadia as an individual have been through. However, this is a novel full of hope. It's an unputdownable story that speaks of the dangers of superstition, prejudice and the desire to maintain a social image in the face of sexual assault and mental illness, but it also speaks of an individual's and a collective's strength and survival instincts. It shows that the way out is through. It's liberating and cathartic. And it heals.

House Number 12 Block Number 3 comes out on October 26. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Hidden Shelf Publishing House and Sana Balagamwala for the advanced reader copy.

[Priya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I like the idea of a house narrating a story. The house in question is a bungalow located in Karachi. House Number 12 Block Number 3 tells us about the lives of its inhabitants, Haji Rahmat, his wife Zainab and their two children, Nadia and Junaid. The story spans the four months after the patriarch of the family is dead. But, of course, the house remembers all the years leading up to this terrible event and how they shaped the family's response to this unexpected crisis.

Each chapter reveals new shades in the personalities of the characters that populate the house. Spoilt little Nadia as a child, and later as a headstrong young woman; superstitious but warm-hearted Zainab; an almost passive Junaid with his carefully-repressed emotions. Dialogue is deftly used to establish and unfold the little conflicts that brew between these characters.

The house observes, not impartially, but with much vested interest in the future of its inhabitants. It notices details that they miss out on in each other's demeanors. The house is sentient but not insightful. It cares deeply for its family; or perhaps it is simply filled with their feelings. Yet, it makes no profound observations or leaps of faith - it is a house, after all - and much is left for the reader to surmise. It's a neat little trick - having a house as narrator. But it's not necessary.

The book chronicles historical events through discussions between characters. Partition, wars with India, natural disaster in East Pakistan, and later the separation of Bangladesh; not to mention, political turmoil within Pakistan. These events show us that the characters lead inconsequential lives on the backdrop of history. And yet, every event in the characters' lives is a small crack; and even the little cracks on the surface of history have huge consequences for those involved. Another neat little trick, but this one worked for me.

I can't believe this book has only 40+ reviews on Goodreads. The writing is delicate. And it talks about trauma with great intensity of feeling. It's worth a read.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

House Number 12 is an “if these walls could talk” story narrated literally by a house watching over the family occupying it between 1957-88. It follows the story of Nadia, a young woman whose family lives in Karachi, Pakistan throughout a time of enormous political unrest. This serves as the backdrop to the unrest Nadia experiences while living there, which she will keep to herself for decades with only the house (which cannot speak) as a witness.

The premise of this book was interesting and the narration style reminded me a little bit of The Book Thief, which was narrated by Death. I also enjoyed learning a bit about Pakistan’s political history, as it’s admittedly something I knew next to nothing about.

Something didn’t quite click for me with this book though. The political backdrop felt disconnected from the narrative of Nadia and her family, and while it provided a setting it didn’t feel related or cohesive. I also felt that the main story arc of Nadia’s traumatic experience and subsequent mental illness were not fleshed out enough, and were very neatly resolved in a way that felt rushed. I wonder if 200 pages was too tight a squeeze for the coinciding storylines as it felt a bit incomplete.

That aside, Balagamwala’s prose is beautiful, with lines such as this one springing up frequently: “The sky bows under the heavy weight of the clouds, ripping at the edges. A few drops of rain fall from the sky and awaken the earth”. I read that one about four times to fully marinate in it before I could move on.

This book is out now (I’m just late with reading / reviewing). Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Rick Krizman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first novel by Sana Balagamwala, and hopefully not the last. In elegant and gracious prose, it tells the story of a well-off Pakistani family in Karachi between 1957 and 1988. These were politically fraught years but the politics exist as a backdrop for the in-close look at the world of Haji and Zainab Rahmat and in particular their daughter, Nadia, who over the years suffers from what seems to be a debilitating depression of unknown origin. The narrator of the story is the actual house in which they live (thus the title), which gives us a uniquely limited omniscient point of view, as the house sees and hears everything but only within its boundaries. In fact, the house may be the star of the show, a charming presence that worries over its inhabitants and fusses over its own well-being, always sharing in the hopes of the Rahmat family who have turned it from a house into a home. It (he? she? they?) is a congenial narrator and a smart vehicle for Balagamwala to display the love she obviously feels for her characters.

Like writers such as Conrad or Murukami, Balagamwala may benefit from the fact that English is her second language. Here every sentence seems like a deliberate creation, never cliché or fallback language, and her mellifluous prose takes us to the very heart of the Rahmat household and the complex interactions of its inhabitants. I felt like a stranger being invited into someone’s home and into a culture, moreover, about which I had little knowledge, and which, for all of its eccentricities and unique customs, seems in the end not so different from my own. Sana is especially deft at handling the mystery of Nadia’s dysfunction, navigating a difficult subject matter with a delicate, understated touch.

This is a jewel of a book—a gift really—and my only disappointment is that I don’t get to spend more time with the Rahmat family. Who knows, maybe I will?

[Eileen Daly-Boas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot to like about this novel. It’s set in Pakistan, and I haven’t read many books that take place there. The descriptions of food and clothing and the house are really well done. It has a lot of the things I like in a novel - interesting characters living in a time of political turmoil. The thing that makes this story different is that it’s narrated by the house. Which might have worked, but the author doesn’t pull it off. The house has political views and seems to sometimes refer to itself as a member of the family (“we”), and at other times, clearly thinks of itself in the first person. It’s viewpoint is childlike, and overly simplistic, but it also seems like the house should be wiser than it is. It’s a high-wire act, and unfortunately, it takes a lot of the heart out of the story.

[Kamilė | cobwebshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

"just as the rancid odor lingers, even after the sewage has been removed, thus it lingered now, the anger, the repulsion, and the horror. and most of all, the guilt of not being able to protect nadia. or tell anyone."

there's something wrong with nadia. perhaps a jinn possession, or a mental illness rearing it's head—she will not eat, speak, or leave her room. the only one that knows the root of it is the one who cannot share it—the house nadia was born in.

"house number 12 block number 3" is a chilling look into how traumatic events can affect one's psyche and alter their whole core. told through the perspective of a house in karachi, it shows the story of a family setting their roots in following the 1947 partition. in addition to being an emotional story about the rahmat family, it follows the historical events in pakistan, india, and bangladesh.

the house is such an effective narrative element—it sees that which is hidden behind locked doors, but its perception is limited to its premises. this comes into play at the stomach-churning moment of realisation halfway through the book that lets you connect the dots without using any explicit details. it's a powerful story about women's role in society, depicting how much has changed and just how much has remained the same. balagamwala's debut is compelling and doesn't sugarcoat the struggles of women in south asian society, yet leaves you hopeful about what the future has to offer.

initially received the book thanks to netgalley and hidden shelf publishing house.

[Reshma Syed]

The book has so much to learn and absorb from. It's a great mix of Art, Drama, Reality and Action. It evolves so beautifully as you read it. An ancient family home embraces so many memories and feelings from within and describes the life of a Pakistani family after partion. The way the author Sana Balagamwala has documented this narration is simply brilliant.. The book transforms into reality and each narration can be visualized clearly. A great debut novel with everything an author has to offer.

[Masa M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Sana Balagamwala for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to the book as I liked the idea of finding out more about Nadia and what her story was. However, when I started reading the book I was a bit confused as to who was the narrator until I realized it was the house itself. 

The house takes us on a 3 decade journey where we grow to love all of the members that occupy the house and feel for their difficulties. I was mesmerized by the book and finished it in less than a day. 

Would highly recommend it to anyone. 

[Iman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely fantastic. I loved every minute of it. There is a wonderful mix of Pakistani history along with some heavy subject matter and a discussion of taboo topics in the South Asian community. It was beautifully written and such a quick read while evoking so much emotion. Once you pick it up you won't be able to put it down!

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the perspective in this story, you are reading it from the home's point of view. So you know nothing about what happens outside your walls, outside of the things the residents speak of. The story is a depressing one with the father dying, and the daughter being reclusive and "broken." I am glad in the end she gets a happier ending and gets her story out and is believed.

[Haniah · Rating 4 out of 5]

House Number 12 Block Number 3 follows the life of a family in Karachi, Pakistan form the late 1950s till 1980s. The book starts off with the death of the head of the house and is primarily set in the 1980s. The book is narrated by the house itself which felt unique and really drew me in.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it felt so refreshing to have a protagonist living in the city you are in (even going to the same University). Of of my favorites was the smooth and easy to read writing, it was quite immersive and improved the overall reading experience.
The author did a adequate job showing quite realistic fight scenes, especially in a desi household. The book does however have some mentions of political events, but what I don't love is how they felt slightly biased. (I do plan on reading up more on these form multiple sides to get a better understanding)
It has strong themes of grief, deals with mental illness taboos in desi society and sexual assault.
Lastly I would like to thank Hidden Shelf Publishing for sending me an advanced readers copy to review. This book is being released today !

[Nadia Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of South Asian literature, I was captivated by this novel from start to finish. Beautifully written, the author paints a vivid picture of life in Pakistan from the 1960s-80’s, with a worthy plot that revolves around mental illness, abuse, cultural mores, family, and trust. It’s a topic that is starting to get more attention in South Asian literature, however Sana Balagamwala deftly addresses the complex subject matter confidently and openly. Books like this are vital for cultivating discussion of taboo subjects and can be catalysts for positive change. And despite the heavy topic, it was an effortless, engaging read. I also very much appreciated the historical context and how it was woven into the story, opening my eyes to a time period that I could stand to learn more about. Highly recommended!

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!! What a beautiful written book. I have not read a book this engaging and from the perspective of the house. I really enjoyed it. As the saying goes.. if the walls could talk!!! LOL
I’m this gem there is so much to take in. I loved it. Definitely recommend

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Quick, compelling read. Moved a little slow at times, but overall enjoyable. Very unique having the actual house act as the narrator, I really liked that.

[Carla Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mainly Melancholy

I did not like any of the characters in this story. It was sad, depressing, meandering, and without direction. One thing I did like was that the house was the narrator.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely unique since it was narrated by the house. But sadly it didn't live up to my expectations and I found myself bored before the halfway point because nothing happened.

[Beth Alfieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, loved the perspective of the house as the narrator, and how it and few others knew the secrets hidden on its grounds. Real life family interactions all seen from inside the house.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

different

I felt this book was interesting and not my usual type of book. Surprisingly I liked it. It was written well.

[Ameena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a unique book...to read a story through the eyes of a house? Such a great concept.

This is a quick and easy read, despite the sensitive topic. I highly recommend it!

[Ambreen Misbah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. Excellent writing, suspense and a most sensitive portrayal of a serious issue.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part about this book is how creatively it is written. The story is about a family who lives in Pakistan and is narrated by the house they live in. There is some humor but mostly sorrow around what happens to the daughter and goes back and forth between time periods as the cause of her illness is revealed. The father’s death is also addressed and the house experiences the same emotions as the family and actually possesses insights that allude the family. The author is very clever in describing the house’s anxiety around the family issues. The plot of the story was not clear until well into the book but the house does a good job of explaining all the factors that affect the family and their servants. Some of the actual history about the war between India and Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh is covered making the book somewhat educational as well. The ending was very good when we find out how the daughter gets well and makes plans for the house to become even more important and influential. Thanks to Hidden Shelf Publishing for the Goodreads giveaway.
Warning: this book addresses the topic of childhood sexual abuse.