unfortunate position where she has to work in order to provide for her son and herself despite having very little employability skills. Prior to the Taliban’s control, women would have not been permitted to work but due to being a widow with a young son to look after Fawad’s mother takes on the role of a domestic servant for the Westerners within the local community. The key theme of childhood poverty and the implication of war is revealed by Busfield in great detail as discussed already. Busfield’s novel allows us to discover how children like Fawad have to ‘work’ in order to provide income in order to support their families. Fawad and the other innocent casualties of war try to survive by begging on an ironically named street “Chicken Street”.

Busfield’s novel explores