The Little Girls
Three little girls. Three faiths. One unbreakable bond in a city built on fault lines.
Jerusalem in the 1960s is a maze of stone alleys, incense, prayer, and tension - but for Mira Goldblum, Ghada Hussein, and Tallie Richardson, it is simply home. A Jewish girl, a Muslim girl, and a Christian girl, they meet by chance in the quiet courtyards of the Old City and build a secret fortress of treasures, feathers, and childhood vows.
They become inseparable - The Little Girls - racing through the Via Dolorosa, dodging Mother Constance and her "dragon" Otto, and claiming the rooftop of the Austrian Hospice as their kingdom. In their world, difference is a curiosity, not a threat.
But the adults around them know better. And soon, the girls begin to learn it too.
Their first cracks appear in small moments - a disagreement over who Jesus was, a father's warning not to "spend so much time with girls who are not like you" . Yet even as the world tries to divide them, they cling fiercely to one another, promising, "We don't have to believe the same things... but we have to believe in each other."
Decades later, grief pulls Mira back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where she collapses under the weight of all she has lost. In the hush of dawn, Tallie finds her on the cold stone floor - and begins singing the song that once bound them together - making MIra realize that she must return to the beginning if she hopes to survive what comes next.
The Little Girls is a sweeping, intimate novel about friendship across borders and generations. It explores the innocence of childhood and the wounds history carves into ordinary lives. Moving between past and present, it explores how love endures even when nations fracture - and how the bonds formed in childhood can become the lifelines that carry us through war, loss, and the hardest truths of adulthood.
Perfect for readers of The Kite Runner, The Map of Salt and Stars, and The Haj, this novel blends emotional depth with vivid historical atmosphere, offering a story that is both tender and unflinching.
A luminous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful novel about the girls who dared to love across lines the world told them not to cross.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks® and the ThriftBooks® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
