*** Spoiler Alert ***
Trigger warning – the death of a child, domestic abuse, descriptions of miscarriages.
Blurb:
From the fertile hills of a tiny village near Jerusalem to the elegant townhouses of Georgetown, Three Daughters is a historical saga that chronicles the lives, loves, and secrets of three generations of Palestinian Christian women.
Born in rural Palestine, just before the dawn of the twentieth century, Miriam adores her father and is certain his love will protect her, but she soon finds that tradition overrides love. Uprooted by war, Miriam enters a world where the old constraints slip away with thrilling and disastrous results. Miriam’s rebellious daughter, Nadia, is thrilled with the opportunity for a modern life that her elite education provides. But when she falls in love with an outsider, the clan reins her back with a shocking finality. Nijmeh, Nadia’s daughter, is an only child and the path her father, the Sheikh, sets for her is fraught with difficulties, yet it prepares her for her ultimate journey to America, where she finds her future.
Each woman, in her own time and in her own way, experiences a world in transition through war and social change…and each must stretch the bounds of her loyalty, her courage, and her heart.
My Thoughts:
I got this book on audible so long ago and I really wasn’t sure what to expect from it and to be honest, I didn’t think I would enjoy it but I was so wrong. This book was so amazing. It is very character-driven and shows the struggles of three generations of women in the same family.
In this book we follow three generations of Christian women in Palestine who are all in the same family, we start with Miriam then her daughter Nadia and then her daughter Nijmeh. We watch as they struggle through times of war and family upheaval.
I really loved how similar the three women are, they are all rebellious in their own way and in their own time. Miriam had an affair with a doctor who she was working with while her husband was away with the army. This affair led to her pregnancy with Nadia.
Nadia was unable to carry a child to full term, and then out of nowhere there is a plane crash near her house, there are no survivors apart from a baby. Nadia takes the baby and raises her as her own. Samir, Nadia’s husband, thinks that the little girl is their own.
Nijmeh marries and moves to America with her abusive husband. When someone the pair considered a sort of friend finds out that Nijmeh isn’t her biologically her parent’s child he threatens to tell her father, insisting that he wants her husband for his daughter. Then disaster strikes, first Nadia dies suddenly, and then out of nowhere Nijmehs husband has a heart attack.
I found it really interesting to watch all of the characters grow because we get to see all three women from a really young age, and it is really interesting how they all were annoyed by their own mothers.
I have to be honest, there is a lot of sex in this book, but I feel like sex for the women was a way for them to grow and for us to see them truly. Sometimes the sex wasn’t with their husbands but again it was for us to see them emotionally grow.
I really liked this book, there were obviously parts that were so difficult to listen to and hear about, mainly Nadia’s miscarriages and the abuse Nijmeh suffered.
I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would.
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