When the Moon Is Low

Fereiba grows up a motherless girl in Kabul and finds unexpected happiness in an arranged marriage to a kind engineer. Their comfortable life collapses when the Taliban seizes power and targets her family, forcing Fereiba to flee with her three children. The family inches across Europe through a shadow world of undocumented refugees, false papers, and human traffickers, crossing one perilous border after another. When her adolescent son Saleem is separated from the rest of the family in a crowded Athens market, the narrative divides between Fereiba and Saleem, mother and son each navigating danger alone in the desperate hope of being reunited.