Alabaster von Chris Aslan

I still hear the voice of my mother telling me what all women in our village tell their daughters: 'Mariam, a woman's honour is as fragile and as beautiful as a butterfly's wings. What is a butterfly without wings, except a worm?' It's probably a good thing that my mother didn't live to see me now. A beautifully crafted novel about two sisters who face the stigma of shame, the sorrow of loss, and the startling hope one can find when someone shows you a different way of seeing the world.

Chris Aslan was born in Turkey and grew up in Beirut and wrote A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road--part memoir, part travelogue about life in Uzbekistan. He is currently lecturing on textiles, tour-guiding around Central Asia, and studying in Oxford for Anglican ordination.He is the author of Alabaster.