Growing up in small-town Punjab in Pakistan, all Rabiya ever wanted was to read her books and then help others like her read and learn by becoming a teacher. But her dreams are shattered when her father—her supporter and confidant—passes away and her elder brother Faruk—the new man of the house—stops her education and marries her off to an older man, Kareem, from Lahore.

Kareem is an orthodox, loveless man with many rules, and Rabiya seeks release in her old college novels and by sneaking off to the Punjab Public Library with her neighbour Nazo, with whom she builds a deep friendship. And then, she meets the charming Nabeel, Nazo’s uncle, a man passionate about poetry and literature, and suddenly she finds herself deep in love.

When Kareem discovers her secret and unleashes his fury, Rabiya finds the courage to walk away. She seeks refuge first with Nabeel, and then with Bina, who works with domestically abused women, but realizes in the end that she will have to be her own refuge and pillar.

In The Cry of the Nightingale, Tahira Naqvi has written the poignant and powerful story of every woman struggling for autonomy and intellectual independence.