The Breadwinner
SynopsisPlot
Eleven-year-old Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Parvana’s father ― a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed ― works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for the crime of having a foreign education, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food. As conditions for the family grow desperate, only one solution emerges. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana must transform herself into a boy, and become the breadwinner.
Story
About this book
Eleven-year-old Parvana lives with her family in a single room of a damaged apartment building in Kabul. Her father, once a history teacher, now sits on a blanket in the marketplace reading and writing letters for people who cannot do so themselves. Under Taliban rule in the late 1990s, girls and women face severe restrictions on movement, work, and education. When Parvana's father is arrested for the supposed crime of holding a foreign education, the family loses its only person permitted to go outside and earn a living.
With no adult male left in the household, Parvana's mother and sisters cannot buy food or work. The situation forces Parvana toward a drastic step: she cuts her hair, changes her clothes, and passes as a boy so she can move through the city and support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother. The story follows her daily efforts to survive in a place where discovery could bring serious consequences.
Deborah Ellis wrote the novel after spending time in refugee camps along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, interviewing women and girls about their experiences. The Breadwinner is the first book in a series and has received awards for its portrayal of loyalty, family, and survival under occupation.
