Products You May Like
In The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders, Sarah Aziza recounts her battle with anorexia and how it transformed her perceptions of her family and her past. Aziza, whose father is a refugee from Gaza, was treated for her eating disorder in a clinic in New York City. She had a setback in 2020, which COVID-19 pandemic restrictions only magnified, yet during that time she was able to reckon with her complicated family history and her Palestinian American background. Aziza’s forthright reflections on home, heritage and the immigrant experience will spark lively dialogue among readers.
The unnamed narrator of Zeyn Joukhadar’s powerful novel The Thirty Names of Night is a Syrian American trans man who must find a way forward after his mother—an ornithologist—dies in a fire. Encounters with her ghost change his understanding of the world. When he discovers the journal of Laila Z, an artist who had surprising connections to his mother and whose main subject was birds, his life is changed forever. A rewarding book club pick, Joukhadar’s emotional, beautifully realized narrative interrogates topics like community, identity, gender and family.
Filled with insight and humor, Randa Jarrar’s memoir, Love Is an Ex-Country, is a refreshingly uninhibited collection of personal essays. Driving from California to her parents’ home in Connecticut, Jarrar—a queer Arab American—logs miles and experiences. Whether she’s having a tense exchange with a racist trucker or visiting her immigrant parents’ old Chicago neighborhood, Jarrar puts her own stamp on the road trip narrative. Along the way, she muses on her childhood, prevailing notions of female beauty and the repercussions of abuse. It’s an unforgettable journey from start to finish.
Betty Shamieh’s irresistible novel, Too Soon, focuses on Arabella, a theater director in New York City. While her grandmother, Zoya, and mother, Naya, try to jump-start her romantic life, Arabella is caught up in a thrilling new project: mounting a gender-swapped production of Hamlet in Palestine. In flashbacks to 1940s Jaffa and 1960s San Francisco, the novel delves into the history of Arabella’s family, telling the stories of Zoya and Naya. A vibrant narrative filled with humor and romance, Too Soon is multilayered, sophisticated and just right for reading groups.