Afghan-American author Nadia Hashimi’s The Pearl That Broke Its Shell tells the entwined stories of two Afghan women in the same family, separated by a century, who find freedom in the tradition of bacha posh—an ancient custom that allows girls to dress and live as boys . . . until they are of marriageable age. Crisscrossing in time, it is a luminous and unforgettable tale of two women, destiny, and identity in Afghanistan.