Zarina Divided

Faruqi, Reem. Zarina Divided
May 20, 2025 by HarperCollins
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Zarina lives in Poona, India with her father (Abajan), mother, and three older brothers. The family has a spacious home as well as servants, including Khushboo, to whom Zarina is particularly close. Zarina goes to school and has friends from other religions, but as the political tensions increase in 1947, her world starts to change. Even though her mother has assured her that they won't leave, her father is a proponent of Muslims like their family going to Pakistan when the British leave. He makes plan, but delays them because the mother is pregnant and not doing well. When a mob attacks the house, however, it's clear that the time has come. The family gets on a train, but are not out of danger. They almost lose one brother, Adil, and survive an attack on the train only because they are hidden in a bathroom. When they get to Bombay, they are given some food and help by Sikh residents, and manage to get on a ship for Karachi. The ship is crowded, and many people are ill, but they eventually arrive. In Karachi, they manage to find housing, although the small place they are renting is already occupied by a Sikh woman who is not happy to give up her home. After they save her from a mob, she leaves, and wishes them well. Abajan gives her the name of the person they have left in their house in Poona. The children start school, but after they hear about a boarding school in the mountains, the boys want to go. The mother, who has had some setbacks in her pregnancy for which Zarina blames herself, doesn't want Zarina to go, but eventually relents. Zarina takes a train to Muree to attend a school run by English women. The other students are all from Christian families who stayed, or Muslim families. Some of the girls are nice, like Daphne Drinkwater, who becomes a close friend, but others are hateful and balk at doing chores for themselves. Zarina gets letters from home, as well as from Khushboo, makes peace with her mother's health, and is relieved when her new sister arrives. The events are based on the life of the author's grandmother, Zarina. 

Strengths: It was interesting to see Zarina's life in these three different stages; living in India, traveling to Pakistan, and going to a school in the mountains. So often, books concentrate only on one aspect of history, so it's interesting to get the full picture. I loved that pictures from the real Zarina are given. While many portions of this book were very difficult, Zarina keeps a fairly good attitude about all of the situations, even when they mean that friends desert her or that she has to leave loved ones. Her guilt over her mother's illness, while misplaced, will be understood by Young readers. The depiction of the school was especially interesting, since the book is set after many British citizens leave the country. While Zarina knows some of the downfalls of colonialism, she doesn't seem to hold anything against individuals. Readers who enjoyed Faruqi's Unsettled, Call Me Adnan, or Golden Girl will want to pick up this new title. 
Weaknesses: This does a good job at providing details for a novel in verse, but this format is still a difficult sell to my students. This seems not to be the case for other young readers, given the sheer number of novels in verse that have been published recently. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who have read books like Senzai's 2015 Ticket to India,  Kelkar's 2017 Ahimsa , and 2024 The Night Diary, and Saadia Faruqi's Partition Project, and want even more accounts of what the Partition of India was like.