Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah

//~ Our mothers, aunts, grandmothers live only in representations of their lives as we, their daughters, try to re-create them…///

Name: Before She Sleeps
Author: Bina Shah
Genre: Dystopian, Satire, Future,
Rating: 4.9/5

Review:
Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah is a satire on the present patriarchal society and the future it is heading towards.  She writes about a future world that is not so far away, yet not so close. It can be considered a South Asian contemporary of The Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood.

This book is set in a dystopian future, where most the countries are destroyed by wars and climatic changes. The number of women has gone very low due to wars, violence and a virus, which killed a large portion of female population. To raise the number of female ratio, women are forced to take several men as husbands.

In Green City, women are seen as nothing more than reproductive machine, they are forced to go through several hormonal test and fertility test to increase their reproductive health. Bearing more children is the easiest way for poor families to climb their way into the middle class. This reminds me of the women under the Nazi rule, who were too seen in a similar way. Even in this oppressive authoritarian rule, there are some women, who refuse to be a part  of  this system. They are forced to hide underground, away from the oppressive system. At night, they provide a service which is now something one cannot buy, intimacy without sex.

The story is told from multiple perspective, from Sabine, Lin, Rupa to Robert Faro. Each character is so well developed, having their backstory. Each character is from a different background and had a different life, but what bound them together was their pain, they were all  victim of this authoritarian government. The writing style was good and engaging. It took me some time to get into the story, but when I did, I  was lost in the world of Green City. The ending was not something I expected, it left a bittersweet feeling with me and left me wondering if there will a sequel of this story.

For Further Reading:
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley