A bildungsroman (an autobiographical novel which tells the story of a character who grows from childhood into adulthood), Shabanu, published in 1989, depicts a young girl's coming of age in a desert in Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim country. The subtitle, Daughter ofthe Wind, reflects the desert conditions where the people live, which force them to move—like the wind—when the land becomes parched and the toba, or water hole, dries up. Shabanu, only eleven when the novel opens, disobeys on occasion and attempts to rebel, but she soon realizes that she must submit to the will of her father, and later to that of her husband, an arranged marriage to an older man. She maintains her independent streak, but definitely matures by the novel's close.