Abdalhawa's novel will go down as one of my all-time favorite books. Her writing is compelling, convicting, and courageous. I love books that make me feel something, and this novel delivered. The writing is poetic and makes your mind dance while reading. I also learned so much about the history of Palestinians living in Kuwait in the 1970s.
2020 Palestine Book Awards Winner 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist
“Susan Abulhawa possesses the heart of a warrior; she looks into the darkest crevices of lives, conflicts, horrendous injustices, and dares to shine light that can illuminate hidden worlds for us.” —Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
In this “beautiful...urgent” novel (The New York Times), Nahr, a young Palestinian woman, fights for a better life for her family as she travels as a refugee throughout the Middle East.
As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison…
Gupta's raw and scintillating memoir highlights the gray areas in immigrant and first-generation lives, the romanticized ideas of success, and the misunderstandings of mental health. I was captivated from beginning to end and impressed by her willingness to be 100% vulnerable in this book - knowing her family and friends would read it. She writes truth in a brave and candid way that I only wish I could do in writing. This is a book that many of us have been waiting for - for my first gen people out there - I felt seen.
“In this vulnerable and courageous memoir, Prachi Gupta takes the myth of the exceptional Indian American family to task. . . . [Her] resilience and her hope to be fully seen are an inspiration in both personal and political terms.”—The Washington Post
“I read it in one sitting. Wow. It aims right at the tender spot where racism, sexism, and family dynamics collide, and somehow manages to be both searingly honest and deeply compassionate.”—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere
A SHE READS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE…
Ruth Ozeki is a brilliant writer with an incredible imagination. I walked away from reading this novel examining my own relationship with the material world and the space we take up. While the book didn't exactly make me feel something, it certainly made me think. Essentially, it's a book about a book narrated by a book. The characters are unique, flawed, and not necessarily likable (the book narrator included) - which I appreciate because it makes them more interesting. I often find myself bringing Ozeki's novel up in conversation because she forces you to confront the reality of this world using unrealistic elements.
"No one writes like Ruth Ozeki-a triumph." -Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library
"Inventive, vivid, and propelled by a sense of wonder." -TIME
"If you've lost your way with fiction over the last year or two, let The Book of Form and Emptiness light your way home." -David Mitchell, Booker Prize-finalist author of Cloud Atlas
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
A boy who hears the voices of objects all around him; a mother drowning in her possessions; and a Book that might hold the secret to saving them both-the brilliantly inventive new novel…
The book examines the mediated dialogue of #WhiteWednesdays, specifically between U.S. mainstream news narratives and Iranian activists on Twitter. These narratives highlight how hierarchies of visibility in both news and social media discourse overshadow transnational feminist politics while reinforcing femonationalist narratives. Such discourses seemingly support women in Iran, but simultaneously promote Islamophobic messages aligned with U.S. geopolitical politics. In a critical discourse analysis of the #WhiteWednesdays campaign on Twitter and mainstream U.S. news coverage of the movement, this analysis complicates representations of Iran, Muslim women, and feminist politics. The author also unpacks the politics of representation, where voices on the ground are obscured in favor of elite sources who reaffirm U.S. Islamophobic and xenophobic ideologies. Scholars and students of communication and media studies will find this book particularly interesting.
