In this memoir, the now 28 year old Muslim girl and Nobel Prise winner who was shot by the Taliban at age 15, comes to terms with her altered life, her fame, and the consequences of that shooting. Trailed by security guards everywhere, and with almost no private life, she has continued to help girls become educated citizens around the world, meeting with world leaders, while dealing with panic attacks from PTSD, and living in a world where girls are still subservient to men and boys. She has experimented with marijuana, graduated from Oxford, dealt with trivial conflicts with family and Muslim friends over customs and clothing, and with a somewhat domineering mother. Most importantly, she has married a man who seems to consider her his equal or superior. She concludes that her life is better than it would theoretically have been had she not been shot.
It is not clear how much of the Muslim faith she actually believes, and I suspect that, being very clever, she is has major doubts about all of it and may secretly be close to being an agnostic. However, it is also clear that were she to acknowledge any doubts publicly, she would not only be completely ostracized by her family, but she would loose much her effectiveness as an advocate for girls education. But it still galls me when she thanks Allah, rather than the Birmingham surgeons for saving her life.
4/5
I
The Passionate Reader 