From the internationally bestselling author of the “terrifically
affecting” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Mornings in Jenin, a
sweeping and lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee
as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life
for her family throughout the Middle East. For readers of
international literary bestsellers including Washington Black,
My Sister, The Serial Killer, and Her Body and Other
Parties.
As Nahr sits, locked
away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the
dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely
knows. Born in Kuwait in the 70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed
of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and
possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks
she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the
brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the US
invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After
trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in
Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her
destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation. Nahr’s subversive humor
and moral ambiguity will resonate with fans of My Sister, The
Serial Killer, and her dark, contemporary struggle places her as
the perfect sister to Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other
Parties.
Written with Susan
Abulhawa’s distinctive “richly detailed, beautiful, and resonant”
(Publishers Weekly) prose, this powerful novel presents a searing,
darkly funny, and wholly unique portrait of a Palestinian woman who
refuses to be a victim.
