Novel within novel: Of reclaiming love, life, and womanhood

What happens when a book arrives at your doorstep, written in your name, but not by you? In The House of Girls, writer Sonia Rafeek spins a layered, metafictional tale where fiction and reality blur. Translated from Malayalam into English by Ministhy S, the novel follows Nazia Hassan — a Malayali woman living and working as a hospital receptionist in Dubai — who receives a mysterious book, Bait Al Banat (House of Girls).

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The mystery of who authored the book is central, but it's not the only intrigue here. As Nazia begins reading, the reader too is drawn into the parallel world of three sisters, Mariam, Soraiyya, and Shamsa. Unmarried women living in Dubai's Gold Souk in 1959, they are forever relegated to the epithet of girls due to their marital status. These characters are loosely centred around the women of the Bait Al Banat Women’s Museum in Dubai (UAE). The museum, created