Review: A Contract Serves to Bind
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 2, 2014
Shahira and Hussain are two beautiful but scarred individuals; one by an abusive husband and the other by a promiscuous wife. Thrown together by circumstances, they get into a contractual marriage which is supposed to work like a business arrangement:  no relationship, no sex and no emotion. Hussain finds someone to look after his daughter and also manages to get his match making mother off his back; whereas for Shahira it spells financial security for herself and her son. It seems to be just what they both want, or so they believe.As they spend time together, Hussain finds himself more and more drawn to Shahira and he wants to look after her and protect her; Shahira however is too scared to trust again, so he decides he has to woo her and win her over so that she can be a real wife and not just one bound by a ‘contract’.The author has brought out the problems faced by a single mom so vividly esp. by a woman in a conservative, patriarchal society. Her description of Paris was magical and made the family holiday come alive for me right in front of my eyes. It’s a beautiful, sensitive story and as for me, I was rooting for Hussain from the word ‘go’.