Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abudullah

Hardcover: 248 pages
Publisher: Modern History Press; 1st edition (January 12, 2009)
Language: English


Another lovely novel. I really enjoy stories that I know are fiction but the author leaves you with something to think about when the story ends. This is how the story started out for me. This story is from the perspective of an ordinary muslim women affected by the 9/11 tragedy.

This story starts out with young women(Arissa) from Pakistan in the process of an arranged marriage. Arissa is a planner and thought she had her life all planned out until one tragic day. She is faced with her husband being killed in the 9-11 tragedy. She is now a widow faced with emotional survival; a muslim victim. She is also faced with what her faith really means to her. All Arissa wants besides her loving husband, is to be accepted in a society where society blames her. Added to all that, she is pregnant with a Special Needs child and will have to raise this child alone.

I enjoyed how Shaila Abudullah uses fashbacks of Arissa's childhood, giving us the opportunity to see how her childhood and her relationship with her husband Faizan prior to the attack, and not only her relationship with her own mother, but with her husbands parents will affect her survival and her forgiveness. The author, Shaila Abudullah shows us how strong of a mom (person) Arissa becomes while dealing with all the challenges she faces with her son faces with special needs, which was very heartfelt to me. I found myself really routing for Arissa and just wanting the best for her.

After doing some research, I found that the author was inspired to write this novel by a real-life family. I included the link for anyone who is interested. This article written by Rekha Baslu actually brought tears to my eyes,


I am giving this novel an B. I enjoyed this author that I am adding her previous novel "Beyond The Cayenne Wall" to my TBR pile.