The best novel I have read this year.

Genre: Fiction / Drama

Pages: 352

First published: 2019

Original language: English

The plot: Three generations of Palestinian-American women in Brooklyn deal with expectations of family, generational change and the harsh realities of arranged marriage. The youngest, 18 year old Deya, is meeting with suitors, but doesn’t want to get married – she craves an education and the freedom to live as she chooses. Told that her parents, Isra and Adam, died in a car accident, a meeting with a mysterious woman and flashbacks to the life of her mother, lead to the discovery of a dark secret and an ending you won’t forget.

What did I think of this book?

A Woman Is No Man is a startling work of literature, the type of book every woman should read once. It is by far the best book I have read this year. It’s a powerful exploration of what it means to grow up as a woman in a deeply conservative Muslim community. Things we as Western women take for granted: the ability to read freely and widely, converse with friends, love and marry a partner of our choosing, are at best frowned up and at worse forbidden completely in this culture. I was shocked and riveted in equal measure, and found myself rooting for Deya and Isra every step of the way, even though I sensed early on what was coming for them. Each day, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

What was most intriguing about this book?

I felt so sad and angry for the women in this book. They desperately wanted a better life and it was always just out of reach for them. Hope lies within Deya, the youngest, and I found myself wondering what lay ahead for her. I felt many emotions during my time with this novel – anger, frustration, sadness. The author seems very critical of conservative Muslim communities, and it shows in her writing. The story of Sarah (Deya’s cousin) and her story really struck me. Sarah too is oppressed by the family, and escapes to Manhattan, where she now works in a book shop. Despite having made her escape and winning her freedom, she feels a deep sadness at the lack of contact with her family, and in the process convinces Deya to take a less extreme path to her own freedom.

What am I going to take away from this book?

This book helped me to see that no matter how bleak things may seem, all is not lost. It is possible to learn from the past and use those lessons to create positive change in the present. Sadly, that isn’t the case for poor Isra, of whose death we learn early on in the novel, but whose actual fate we read of at the novel’s climax. The final scene of Isra boarding the subway with her children, hours before her death, stayed with me long after I’d finished this book.

Will I enjoy this book?

Undoubtedly. I personally enjoy women’s history, and particularly stories about women who overcame adversity to life a better and more fulfilled life, and this book for me is a future classic.

Rating : 5/5