The House of Girls

Sonia Rafeek’s third novel The House of Girls is a historiographic metafiction crafted in a ‘novel within novel’ format. The story kicks off with the protagonist Nazia Hassan, working as a receptionist in a hospital in Dubai, receiving a book by courier written by someone else in her name. Embarrassed to the core, she tries to hide it, yet longs to see its contents. The new novel titled ‘Bait Al Banat’ unravels the life of three sisters, Mariam, Soraiyya and Shamsa, who lived in the historic Gold Souq area. They remained unmarried throughout their lives and earned their living by doing small-scale businesses.