When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she
must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.In a novel of present-day Pakistan, the lives of the nomads of the Cholistan Desert
are revealed in the story of Shabanu, who must submit to the marriage her father arranges for her, or go against centuries of tradition by defying him
