Yesterday I read the perfect e-short story just in time for Halloween. Mina Khan’s Dead: A Ghost Story (2012) is both chilling and empowering.
Nasreen is a ghost. But she’s not just your average household spook. She’s a woman scorned. As a teenager in Bangladesh, her widower father betroths her to Matin, a New York businessman on a quick trip to his motherland to find a wife. He’s more than a decade older than Nasreen, but what successful entrepreneur in New York wouldn’t be a great catch?
Matin, that’s who.
When Nasreen gets to New York, she soon realizes that Matin is not all that. In fact, he’s about as far from how he described himself to Nasreen’s father as it gets. But it’s too late and Nasreen is stuck in an abusive marriage that soon sours when the couple moves to west Texas so they can run a hotel and make a ton of money. Translated into Matin’s language, he runs the hotel while Nasreen cleans it.
Things heat up when Nasreen walks in on Matin and the other maid–a woman from Mexico–shtupping in one of the guest rooms. What follows is tragic, yet empowering. It’s a sad story, but also one full of hope. Nasreen the ghost is far more happier than Nasreen the abused wife.
Mina Khan is a beautiful writer. I felt like I was there with Nasreen in Bangladesh, then New York, and finally west Texas. I found it refreshing to read about characters that aren’t always found in paranormal stories.
Dead: A Ghost Story is available on Amazon, as are her novels, The Djinn’s Dilemma and A Tale of Two Djinns, both of which are spicy romance stories.
Happy Halloween!
Shtupping… now there’s a word I don’t hear a lot ’round these parts.
Sounds like a good book, and Mina sounds like an interesting author – thanks for sharing!
Thanks Susan for the thoughtful and kind review. So glad you enjoyed the story!