后塔利班时代，在阿富汗的一个军事基地，美国当局囚禁了一个女孩。这个女孩是谁？她为什么孤身一人在破败的学校里？难道她是恐怖分子？
这个女孩遭到了关押、威胁，却一直保持沉默。可以获知她身份的*线索就是：一个破烂的背包，里面有似乎可以引向真相的纸片，上面写着上面写着肖齐亚、努莉亚、莱拉、哈塞、阿斯夫，还有帕瓦娜……
备受关注和期待的三部曲之后，作者写出了这本《我的名字叫帕瓦娜》。此时，帕瓦娜已经15岁，她终于和自己的母亲、姐姐团聚。尽管塔利班政权已经落魄，但是国家仍处于战乱之中。战后遗留下来的不仅仅对家园的破坏，还有对心灵的摧残。故事中对于女性教育以及人权的部分，值得世人反思。

The Breadwinner brings to life an issue that has recently exploded in the international media — the reality of life under the Taliban. Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because he has a foreign education, her father is arrested by the Taliban, the religious group that controls the country. Since women cannot appear in public unless covered head to toe, or go to school, or work outside the home, the family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan. She cuts her hair and disguises herself as a boy to earn money for her family. Parvana’s determination to survive is the force that drives this novel set against the backdrop of an intolerable situation brought about by war and religious fanaticism. Deborah Ellis spent several months talking with women and girls in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and Russia. This suspenseful, timely novel is the result of those encounters. Royalties from the sale of The Breadwinner will go toward educating Afghan girls in Pakistani refugee camps. “A potent portrait of life in contemporary Afghanistan, showing that powerful heroines can survive even in the most oppressive ... conditions.” — Booklist