My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird

Cover design and endpaper illustration © Shreya Gupta

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First published in Great Britain by MacLehose Press, An Imprint of Quercus Editions Limited, Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y0DZ

“Please Turn the Air Conditioning On, Sir,” “Daughter Number Eight,” “The Late Shift,” and “Khurshid Khanum, Rise and Shine” were first published in English translation in Words Without Borders, in December 2020

“Companion,” was first published in Dari in Nebesht, in August 2021

First Grand Central Publishing Edition: October 2022

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBNs: 978-1-5387-2682-2 (hardcover); 978-1-5387-2683-9 (ebook)

E3-20220816-JV-NF-ORI