Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Lombong. We talk a lot about parents on the pod.

Authors love writing books about families, and it's pretty often, actually, that characters

who are flawed and messy are the way they are because their parents goofed some time ago.

A lot of the tension in today's book actually comes from the absence of parents and what can

fester in the void they leave.

The novel is When We Were Sisters by Fatima Ascar, and it's about these three orphans who

are left in the care of an uncle who, you know, isn't that great and has got his own problems.

Oscar's own parents died when they were young, and they talked to NPR Scott, Simon,

about how the stories involving orphans they read growing up never really rang true. Those

books didn't capture the chaos or cruelty of it all and how you find a way to keep living,

despite all that. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe.

When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and C's apply.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The mother of Koser, Aisha and Noreen, the youngest and oldest of three sisters, died years ago.

Then one day they're Baba, their father, dies too.

Let's ask Fatima Oscar, the author of the new novel, When we were sisters to read from their book, narrated in the voice of the youngest.

...