Childish pleasures

The Breadwinner
Deborah Ellis

Every now and then, I like to throw a young adult book into my reading mix. Officially, this is a kind of professional obligation – I teach young people; therefore, it’s my responsibility to read the kind of books they might read, and that I might recommend they read. Unofficially, I enjoy young adult fiction a lot. It’s a joy to read something that I can invariably race through in a single sitting. And yet I would seldom say these books are simplistic; I marvel at the refusal of most young adult fiction to shy away from tough topics.

This novel was no exception. It’s set in Taliban-ruled Kabul and torture, violence, war and depression all feature on its pages. Just like the last book I read, it was set in the bleakest of settings. It couldn’t, however, have been more different. Unlike that book, it is brimming with hope. This is an uplifting tale of the ways in which women can survive and even flourish under the most oppressive of regimes.

By the end of it, I felt buoyed by optimism – an optimism that some, perhaps, would dismiss as childish. But that’s no bad thing; a dose of youthful hope might be just what we all need from time to time. And the assertion on the front cover that this novel is “recommended by Malala Yousafzai” is reminder that such female triumphs are not purely fantastical.