The Alterations Lady

Two women. One exhilarating story of displacement and perseverance in the face of extremism. What happens when we take the time to listen?

When the journalist Cindy Miller met Lailoma Shahwali, who was altering her daughter's wedding dress, she assumed their interactions would be brief. But in Lailoma she found not just a seamstress, but a survivor who would open up about her remarkable experiences in her native Afghanistan. In recollections shared over warm tea with cardamom, frozen walnuts, and mulberries, Lailoma offers both an entry into a colorful pre-Taliban Afghanistan, where, despite being a girl, she pursued an education and worked toward becoming a doctor, as well as a stark portrait of what came next, when the Taliban seized her beloved country, stripped her of her hard-won rights, terrorized her family, and brutally murdered her husband.

A breathtaking account of triumph against all odds, Lailoma's fight to protect her young son and support her family takes them on a dangerous mountain escape into Pakistan and then to the United States in search of sanctuary and opportunity. Here, her navigation of a complicated immigration system and her pursuit of the elusive American dream is both highly personal and a timeless account of the experiences of refugees everywhere. Beautifully detailed and strikingly told, The Alterations Lady is a poignant reminder of the possibilities offered by a nation of immigrants and a call to hear the stories of our neighbors, the unsung heroes we interact with every day.