My mother said my name: A novel of Afghanistan, Loss and Belonging.

What does it mean to lose everything-and still find yourself?

When the Taliban seize Kabul in 2021, Mina Mohammad's life is shattered. After witnessing the brutal killing of her mother, Mina flees Afghanistan with her father and younger sister, first finding refuge in Denmark and eventually beginning a new life in New York.

There, Mina discovers freedoms she never knew, enters university, and forms an unexpected friendship with Mr. Mendelsohn, an elderly Jewish man and Holocaust survivor. As they share stories of Afghanistan, Europe, persecution and survival, Mina begins to understand her own past-and the forces shaping the world around her.

But the political upheavals following October 7, 2023, and the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election force Mina to question whether the new world she has embraced is as safe as she believed.

Then a secret mission draws her back toward Afghanistan.

My Mother Said My Name is a literary novel about grief, exile, identity and belonging-and about the extraordinary ways people can transform after profound loss.

For readers drawn to literary fiction, refugee stories, Afghan history, women's stories, political fiction, and novels about loss, displacement and belonging, this is a story of survival, friendship, love and revenge.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Grondal
Published: 05/13/2026
ISBN: 9788797535882
Pages: 380
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.27h x 5.83w x 0.85d
Large Print

Review Citations: BlueInk Review 07/09/2026