Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness fate & the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor & emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini Jhumpa Lahiri & Lisa See In Kabul 2007 with a drug-addicted father & no brothers Rahima & her sisters can only sporadically attend school & can rarely leave the house Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh which allows young Rahima to dress & be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age As a son she can attend school go to the market & chaperone her older sisters But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom A century earlier her great-great grandmother Shekiba left orphaned by an epidemic saved herself & built a new life the same way Crisscrossing in time The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? & if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride how will she survive?