Super Short Summary

In Suzanne Fisher Staples’s Under the Persimmon Tree, Najmah, an Afghan girl, becomes orphaned and disguises herself as a boy to search for her conscripted father and brother, while Nusrat, an American convert to Islam, awaits news of her husband in Pakistan. Their paths converge at Nusrat’s makeshift school, exemplifying interconnected stories of loss and resilience set against the backdrop of the Afghan conflict. The book contains topics of parental loss, war, and religious conversations.