India, July 12 -- What happens when a book arrives at your doorstep, written in your name, but not by you? In The House of Girls, Sonia Rafeek spins a layered, metafictional tale where fiction and reality blur, and forgotten women step into the light. 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), authored under her name.

The mystery of who wrote 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 Mariam, Soraiyya, and Shamsa. Unmarried Muslim women living in Dubai's Gold Souk in 19...