Breadwinner (book)

"Breadwinner" is a children's novel by Deborah Ellis, first published in 2001. As of April 2008, the English-language edition of the book has had a run of 20 editions. The title of the book reflects the task of the protagonist, the 11-year-old girl Parvana who is compelled to be the breadwinner for a family in a war-torn Taliban-era in Afghanistan.

For her research, the author (who is by profession a psychologist) spent several months interviewing women and girls in the refugee camps. The book has received several literary awards, including the Peter Pan Prize and the Middle East Book Award. A sequel, "Parvana's Journey" was released in 2003.

Plot summary

Parvana lives in a small house with her parents, her two sisters, and her baby brother. Though they used to be wealthy, they were driven to near poverty by repeated bombings. However, their father provides for the family by reading and writing letters for his illiterate customers, and selling items the family can survive without. Unfortunately, early in the story, Parvana's father is taken to jail by the Taliban for having had a foreign education. Her family is left with no means of support because women are not allowed to work. In their city of Kabul, women are not allowed to leave the house without a man. Though Parvana tries to buy food for her family, she is beaten by one of the Taliban for not having a burqa,a long black robe with separate head and face covering that the Taliban have enforced) but manages to escape into the streets, where she happens upon Mrs. Weera, who takes her home.

Together with Parvana's older sister Nooria, their mother, and a family friend Mrs. Weera, the women devise a plan to have Parvana masquerading as a boy so she can work to buy them the food and items they need. She then also continues her father's work, selling small items and reading and writing letters for the illiterate. When she runs into one of her old classmates, Shauzia, also disguised as a tea boy, the two scrounge together enough money to set up mobile sales stands from which they then sell cigarettes and snacks. The two earn the money for this by selling the bones that they dig up in a local cemetery.

Subsequently, Parvana's older sister Nooria receives an offer of marriage from a young man in another part of the country, Mazar-e-Sharif, where the Taliban are not in control. Nooria jumps at the chance to escape and finish her education, and to get away from a place where she feels she has no future. With the exception of Parvana, who stays home with Mrs. Weera, the family (including 5 year old Maryam and little Ali) then head to Mazar-e-Sharif. Some time later Parvana's father is released from jail and returns home. A short while later they take in Homa, a woman who has fled Mazar-e-Sharif because her family had been murdered by the Talian, who have taken over that area. They realized this is the same area where the rest of the family went for the wedding. Worried by the news, Parvana and her father set out to find their family.