The Disobedient Wife

Author(s): Annika Milisic-Stanley

Location(s): Tajikistan

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 2007-2008

Location

Content

Dedicated to the women of Tajikistan, The Disobedient Wife intertwines the narratives of a British expatriate, Harriet, whose journal portrays a darker interior world than that of the rich wife of the powerful Henri Simenon, and Nargis, her local nanny and maid, struggling with poverty, yet with a strength that Harriet comes to admire as her own life unravels against a backdrop of violence and betrayal.

Tajikistan is a place few foreigners visit, run by war lords and funded by bonded labour in the cotton fields, heroin trafficking and Russian remittances. No other novels exist about modern-day Tajikistan. This book describes the natural beauty of the mountainous, dramatic countryside as well as the ugliness of ex-Soviet urban infrastructure. Through Harriet’s journal, we see Dushanbe through the eyes of a foreigner. She describes colour and pomp of Tajik festivals, the last remnants of old Soviet traditions; Attending the Circus and Christmas theatre shows, as well as Tajik New Year and Nav Ruz. She also describes the grinding poverty of ordinary people, the glittering Presidential Palaces for the rich elite, and the comfortable expat life: parties, dining at restaurants and weekend trips to snowshoe and ski in the surrounding mountains.
Nargis’s story demonstrates the socio-cultural conflicts of life as an educated but poor woman in a country beset by economic collapse and a resurgence of strict religious and cultural tradition after the collapse of the USSR. Her reputation is in tatters after leaving her second, abusive husband Poulod. He is an abusive, migrant labourer in Russia who becomes entangled in heroin trafficking and she is forced into hiding with her children. This book will fill a geographic and cultural gap in the market and will interest people interested in reading about different countries. Expatriates will also enjoy this book, identifying with Harriet’s struggle to find her voice against a backdrop of constant flux.

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