April Book Club: Against the Loveless World by Susan Albuhawa

Join us EITHER in the shop in person on Wednesday, April 12th, at 6:30 pm, OR via Zoom at 6:30 pm on Thursday, April 13th! In celebration of Middle Eastern and Northern African Heritage Month, which has begun to be celebrated in the United States during April each year to recognize the history, achievements and contributions of MENA people across the United States.

2020 Palestine Book Awards Winner
2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist

From the internationally bestselling author of Mornings in Jenin comes a gripping, lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she searches for a means to survive in the midst of revolutionary turmoil.

As the theme of nationalism, radicalized violence, and women’s rights are driving the international news cycle, Nahr’s story offers an intimate look at what drives people to extreme actions. Susan Abulhawa has prepared a Reading Group Guide that will appear at the back of the paperback edition to keep the conversation going among readers. Nahr is an outspoken feminist, an aspiring beauty salon owner, and a sometimes escort and devoted breadwinner for her family, who also happens to be imprisoned for acts of terrorism. She joins the ranks of other radicalized protagonists like June Osborne (The Handmaid’s Tale), Evey Hammond (V for Vendetta), and others.

Praise for Against the Loveless World
“This utterly compelling novel of love, passion, and politics is also a story of personal and revolutionary awakening. Susan Abulhawa weaves a thrilling account of Nahr and her life–from young girl to independent woman–into the larger tapestry of Palestinian dispossession and resistance. Formed through the calamitous experiences of invasion, war, occupation, and sexual exploitation, Nahr becomes a political prisoner who is yet free in her own mind. An agent of history and a full-fledged subject of her own existence, Nahr stands at the center of Abulhawa’s ambitious epic.” – Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer

“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, who are too often oblivious. A major writer of our time, to read Abulhawa is to begin to understand not simply the misinformation we have received for decades about what has gone on in Palestine and the Middle East, but to come to terms with our own resistance to feeling the terror of our own fear of Truth.” – Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple and Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart