Beneath My Mother’s Feet
- ISBN13: 9781416947288
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
“Our lives will always be in the hands of our mothers, whether we like it or not.”Nazia doesn’t mind when her friends tease and call her a good beti, a dutiful daughter. Growing up in a working-class family in Karachi, Pakistan, Nazia knows that obedience is the least she can give to her mother, who has spent years saving and preparing for her dowry. But every daughter must grow up, and for fourteen-year-old Nazia that day arrives suddenly when her father get… More >>
Fourteen-year-old Nazia was content. She was going to school, had a happy home life, and was going to be married the following summer. But when her father was injured on the job, her world shattered. Her older brother stole her dowry and ran away rather than support the family. Nazia was pulled out of school to clean houses with her mother. In Amjed Qamar’s 2008 novel “Beneath My Mother’s Feet,” Nazia is faced with an important dilemma: How far do I go to please my parents without losing my own identity?
The parent-child relationships in this book are fascinating. Nazia’s father Abbu is, for lack of better words, a scumbag. Once he loses his job, he makes no true effort to find another and wastes the family’s hard-earned money. He squanders their rent and when the family is evicted, he disappears. Nazia always thinks the best of him and is irritated with her mother for talking badly about him. Until the day he was caught stealing, she thought he’d somehow rescue them. Abbu is a cockroach of a man! I truly wanted to squash him.
The mother Amma is a very strong female character. She saves her family from destitution by working herself to the bone. Nazia is often at odds with her, like most teenaged daughters, but learns to truly respect her mother. Amma is a wonderful mother figure, wanting the best for her daughter and supporting her in her decisions. I admired her a lot.
Can Nazia overcome a culture of female-obedience and ignorance? Or will she agree to an arranged marriage to her repulsive cousin and continue to depend on the unreliable males in the family? Read the book and find out.
by Jennifer Melville
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Rating: 4 / 5
Know a young reader with a blossoming dream to battle poverty? Get her a copy of Beneath My Mother’s Feet by Amjed Qamar.
Throughout this moving debut novel, we grow to care deeply about Nazia, a young heroine with few choices but immense courage and compassion.
The author honors the culture of her origin and yet unflinchingly etches out in stark detail the chasm in Pakistan between rich and poor and men and women. American readers won’t be able to read news headlines about Pakistanis without picturing Nazia and her friends and family living there.
Rating: 5 / 5
I had the pleasure of meeting the author at a wedding. She was passionate about her story and I was excited to read the book. It was so filled with vivid images and cultural detail. As with all good books, I felt like I was in the story watching the events unfold. The story represents cultural traditions like arranged marriage and dowry in a way that helps westerners like me understand the nuances of those traditions. It highlights the true strength of the female characters and how they show their strength in subtle and overt ways. I was sorry to see the story end. It was beautiful and powerful.
Rating: 5 / 5
Which path should you take when faced with the choice between your own dreams and the needs of the people you love most?
That is precisely the dilemma facing Amjed Qamar’s fourteen-year-old protagonist, Nazia, in her debut novel, BENEATH MY MOTHER’S FEET. When her father is injured on the job, Nazia’s world is thrown into chaos when she must quit school to help her mother clean houses in order to earn a living for her family. Nazia is forced to deal with ever-increasing burdens, leading her to question beliefs she once accepted as absolute and confront an unknown future that previously seemed so certain.
The best stories are those with universal themes to which anyone can relate, with enough unique details and fresh perspectives to keep the reader’s interest, and Qamar does this with an expert’s grace. Her writing is spare and elegant, giving readers an insider’s view into daily life in modern-day Pakistan. The characters are like any flesh and blood human being — loving, devoted, but not without their flaws, and anyone looking for a young female lead boasting a driving force beyond boys, designer labels, or social status will be thrilled with Qamar’s central character.
BENEATH MY MOTHER’S FEET is a spectacular, thought-provoking work of fiction that will stay with the reader long after the story’s end.
Reviewed by: Cat
Rating: 5 / 5
Although this book is for young adult readers, I (an adult) read this book in almost one sitting and was completely carried away by the story. Ms Qamar writes in such a way that draws you in and gives you a snapshot of life in a Pakistani town. You gain a better understanding of their culture, their deep loyalty to family and their everyday ways of life. You’ll instantly fall in love with the main charachter, Nazia, who is just a young girl enjoying school, friends, her family and the every day perils and adventures of growing up. That is until her mother takes her out of school so she can help earn money for the family. What Nazia experiences teaches her many things, tests her own loyalty to her family and teaches her how to deal with personal struggles. Days after reading this book, I was still thinking about Nazia and all that she experienced. This is definitely a must read for all age groups!
Rating: 5 / 5