Ahrash is a highly gifted village boy who strives to excel in academics. Absolutely devoted to his
family, especially to his older brother, he is determined to improve all their lives through
a higher education and, ultimately, a prosperous job.
As Ahrash steadily moves toward his goal, he suddenly finds himself in a predicament that
causes him to make a mistake. The mistake is colossal, enough to derail his promising life and
propel him down a terrifying path.
Now in the grip of Sharia law, Ahrash can only watch death racing toward him.
Will this thirteen-year-old child be strong enough to battle the idea of mortality?

An Excerpt

The room was surprisingly chilly for a summer morning. The open window must have allowed in the cold mountain air throughout the night.

Ali could hear his mother moaning and wondered if it was her crying that had woken him so early. He stayed in bed for a short time, tossing and turning on the hard floor. Unable to fall back to sleep, eventually he rose to his feet and put on his clothes.

He walked to the other side of the room where his sisters, undisturbed by their mother’s groans, were both sound asleep. He closed the window and gently pulled the covers over his younger sister’s bare shoulders.

A strange feeling came over him at once, an acute sense of confinement. Not only were the walls of the room closing in on him, his skin felt stretched and taut, not fitting his body right.

Feeling increasingly hemmed in, Ali decided to leave the house.

Outside, he sat on the doorstep and watched the still rising sun. A few feet away, Mahmood’s bike leaned against the house. It has been there untouched for over two months. He remembered the day Sharif had brought the bike over; it was exactly one week after his son’s funeral.

  “I want you to have his bike. It can take you into town,” the grieving father said, heartbroken and contrite. He then removed Mahmood’s slingshot from his pocket and hung it on the bike’s handlebar. “You better have this too. His mother should not see it around the house.”