it's tentatively called Life and Other Punishments.
it's about a girl named isa. isa was left on the stoop of a siberian orphange when she was a week old. she was discovered by orphanage worker aisha, who was from india. aisha discovered that isa was missing her pinky finger, and was also really small due to isa's mother's smoking habit. everyone agrees isa will not get adopted, and so aisha names the baby isa after her desceased mother. isa moves to a foster home, and when she is 11 aisha is killed. isa becomes so depressed that her foster parents cant handle it and isa is sent to another foster home in the far north of siberia. these foster parents are already fostering a girl called bao who is isa's age. bao is chinese and has a terrid life. the girls become fast friends.
when they are 15, a bomb is dropped on their hometown and their foster parents are killed. the girls are sent to a temporary place to stay, in which they are sharing a room filled with orphans with nowhere to go. the girls decide to run away.
they make it to a big city, and find a truck triver who can take them to magadan and has a friend who can take them to the chinese border. they get to moscow in one piece, and then go with the truck driver's friend to the border. the driver rapes isa and tells her not to tell, else she and bao will be killed. isa doesn't tell, but when she and bao are in china she discovers she is pregnant. now, isa is 15, pregnant by rape, in a foreign city with nowhere to go. luckily, bao can speak mandarin chinese and gets a job. isa begins to try to track down aisha's family in india.
the girls do not have enough money, and when isa is 4 months pregnant they are evicted. they start to hitchike to beijing. when they get there they steal an abandoned car and plan to drive as far away as they can. they make it a few miles from the mongolian border before the car breaks down. they find themselves tranded.
a group of drunk men comes along and attempts to kidnap/murder/whatever them. isa becomes frightful for her baby's life, and in that moment she truly sees how she can be a mother and how much she loves her baby. this gives her the strength to knock out one of the men. bao grabs his gun and threatens them. she ends up shooting one who tries to grab her. he is badly injured and the men drive away.
a man appears on horseback, saying he is from mongolia and he is amazed at what they did. he offers to take them to his home, 20 or so miles into mongolia. the girls go with him. isa is 6 months pregnant at this point.
the man's wife is a midwife and helps isa out. they beg the girls to stay with them and their family until the baby is born. isa and bao agree.
bao works with the family in the farm they own, while isa works in the kitchen since she is pregnant.
when isa finally goes into labor, her baby is breech and she loses a lot of blood. the midwife says she will most likely die, but when isa sees her baby, she becomes determined to live. she names the little girl aisha after aisha, and quickly heals. everyone is shocked.
when aisha is 4 months old, isa meets a man from america who is teaching at the local school. she falls in love with him, and he, named markus loves her too. she tells him she is 20, even though she is barely 16.
a year and a half later, he is going back to america. isa begs him to take her and the baby, she wants aisha to have a good life. he takes them, but isa has to leave bao behind. it kills her to do this.
she lives with the man's mother, martha, who loves isa and aisha.
the day after aisha's second birthday, isa gets a letter from mongolia saying bao has died. isa almost kills herself, but for the sake of her daughter she doesn't.
more stuff happens, and the book ends with isa giving birth to her second daughter by markus (who has also died but im not sure of how). aisha, who is 10 at this point, comes over to see her baby half sister and asks what isa will name her. isa smiles and says "bao."
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