Alabaster: What is most precious is also most fragile

"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.